Notes and Comments.

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2318, 24 March 1914, Page 2

Notes and Comments.

To-day's History. New Zealand discovered., 1642. Chesterfield died, 1773. Russians expelled from Cracow, 1794. j Longfellow died, 1882. Sir Edwin Arnold died, 1 ( JO4. Death of Queen Elizabeth, 1603. On the death of Queen Elizabeth, in 1603, James VI. of Scotland became also the accepted King of England, by virtue of his descent from the sister of King Henry V 111.., Margaret Tudor, who married James IV"., King of the Scots. He was ninth in the line of the Scottish dynasty of the Stuarts, and had been carefully reared in Protestantism, so as to make him an acceptable heir to the English throne. He came to it at a time when the autocratic spirit of the Tudors, making use of the peculiar circumstances of their time, had raised the royal power and prerogative to their most exalted pitch j and he united the two kingdoms of England and Scotland under one sovereignty. The noble inheritance fell to a race who, comprehending not one of the conditions by which alone it was possible to be retained, profligately misused, until they lost it utterly. The calamity was in no respect seen by the statesman, Cecil, to whose exertion it was mainly due that James was seated on the throne; yet in regard to it, say our least prejudiced historians, he cannot be held blameless. He was doubtless' right in the course ho took, in so far as he thereby satisfied a national desire and brought under one crown two kingdoms that with advantage to either could not separately exist; but it remains a reproach to his name that he let slip the occasion of obtaining for the people some ascertained and settled guarantees, which could not then have been refused, and. which might have saved Ualf a century of bloodshed, :

* Spread of the Noxious Dread. A serious matter which necessitates the urgent attention of the responsible authorities has been pointed out to us as having very detrimental and extensive effects on the pasture lands of this district. An experienced farmer returned from a recent visit to the Taonui district, with a deep-rooted feeling against the manner in which noxious weeds—pennyroyal and Californian thistle in particular—have been allowed to remain unchecked on several farms in the locality mentioned. Pennyroyal is exceedingly difficult to eradicate, and it 3 unchecked growth at this season of the year enables the weed to gain a good hold. The Californian thistle is credited with gaining a hold on the banks of the Oroua river, and as this stream would act as a means of distributing the thistle down over a large area, the present position is viewed with a deal of apprehension. Pennyroyal is also flourishing beyond ( Makino, whilst thistles have been allowed to grow, flower, and seed, on some farms, on the Kiinbolton road, within four miles of Feilding, in a manner which must seriously impair the productivity of the adjacent holdings; This was particularly apparent on recent days when strong winds took the thistle seeds for a considerable distance. Previously clean pastures will doubtless prove a good germinating ground for the seeds distributed in this manner. Something should be done about it.