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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5163, 7 March 1888, Page 2

Tins is proving a wonderful ago of discovery in New Zealand. Apart from the additions to our botanical knowledge, made from time to time by the Philosophical Institute, tho Government is constantly teaching us something or another that ignorant people thought they already knew. For instance, it is quito withiu tho rocollection of some of the youngest of our readers when tho Government discovered and imported the

"natural enemy" of the rabbit. Then followed the brilliant researches into tho habits and customs of the Codlin moth ; we very nearly discovered the Colorado beetle : but wo have got the Hessian fly, arid our latest acquisition .is tho Californian thistle. Now. many a private sett'or had imported weasels before the Government discovered this natural enemy of bunny ; tho. Codlin moth had ; bcen known in the orchards of Nelson years bofc.ro our Legislature busied itself in the matter; the Colorado beetle never found its way here : the Hessian fly is no now thing in New Zealand, any more than is tho Californian thistle. A dreadful caricature of this weed has been issued by our morning contemporary as a sort of -warning , and instruction to laud owners, but it will puzzle most people todiscovertheroal plant by lookiugat the drawing , . The fact is there arenumerous varieties of the thistle in this country, and, so far as we know, oue is just as bad as the other. Tho thistle, however, has not Ik'ou without its uses. It has furnished food for famishing live stock; its roots have opened and sweetened the soil, and it has done much to kill fern. There is a much worse thing upon us than the thistle, and that is a shrub, which has been gradually .spreading, which is 1101 good for cattle, which kills all other vegetation, and is a nasty win- leafless weed that bids fair to usurp the place of grass. The Maoris have a name for it, but wo have forgotten it. Perhaps tho Government will be kind enough to send up an inspector from the "All Sorts" dejxirtment to report.