RAGWORT PEST

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 28, 3 February 1930, Page 8

RAGWORT PEST

SPREAD IN HUTT VALLEY

SMALL HOLDING DIFFICULTY

Ragwort, one of the worst of the noxious weed pests which has found its way into, New Zealand, has. not until recently made much headway in the southern portions of this'island, but it is a persistent penetrator, and, if the Hutt Valley is anything to go upon, has this year, thanks to the fact that little notice was taken of the first few plants hero and there, taken a firm hold. Where last year there showed up odd plants, dark green stems and foliage carrying multiple heads of bright yellow flowers, thero are now. dozens and scores in brilliant bloom, .hurrying on from flower to»seed stage, that next year there may be hundreds in place of dozens and scores. -

Tho declaration of what shall constitute a noxious weed and what not appears rather peculiar to a layman. In 1908 ragwort, Californian thistle, sweet briar, and blackberry were declared noxious weeds throughout New Zealand, and local authorities had .power to declaro any other vegetable pest a noxious weed. Last year the Act waa amended to ghje local authorities power to remove ragwort and Californian thistle, but not sweet briar and blackberry, from tho list of general pests, and thus ragwort and the thistle may be banned on ono farm (in one county) and be free to grow; (and to delugo the first farm mputioncd with wind-borne seeds) on another on the other side of the roacl. The Agricultural Department, which is charged \vith the ■ administration of tho^Act, apparently has no control of weed pests within boroughs. The amendment to the Act, moreover, as a rule applies most conveniently to those areas where the,two weeds, ragwort and thistle, are so far out of hand that the position seems hopeless. That is, the local authority throws up its hands and says: "This pest is so great a pest with us to-day that it's got us beatenj'let's declare it not to be a pest any longer."

Tho provision which leaves it to local authorities to declare what is a noxious weed also applies hi practice in rather a l.effc-handed way in some cases. Gorse, for -instance, is undoubtedly a pest 011 the hills about Wellington, but gorse has never been declared a noxious weed by tho City Council, for were that body to place gorse on tho banned list it would have a,fine large job on its hands of cleaning'up tho Town Belt. The worse the gorse pest becomes the less likely is the council to declare that it is a pest. . ■.'.■.'■'.,■. •.-■■■ Returning to the rapid spread of ragwort about,the Hutt Valley: the growth has not yet reached euch proportions that it cannot bo checked, but! in a few more seasons thia may well be. There is, however, a difficulty in the way of insistence upon ragwort' pulling—cutting is no cure; —in that many of the small holdings are operated by men who- work' in town, leaving home early each morning and getting back, possibly in time to milk a few cows at night,' possibly not, and they can afford* neither the time nor the money to employ labour • for weed eradication. That is, of course, not the Hutt Valley's particular difficulty, but is common to many districts. The fight against this showy weed so far appears to be a losing one, but the release thisseason of the cinnabar m,oth, which has been carefully cultivated at the Cawthron 'Institute, Nelson, in fair quantity in various affected districts may be the beginning of a successful fight against ragwort. r