THISTLE SPREAD

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22588, 17 March 1948, Page 4

THISTLE SPREAD

MANGATU LANDS CONSERVATION ANGLE

COMMISSIONER'S LETTER

An assurance that he was as much concerned with the spread of variegated thistle in the Mangatu area as was the board, and that he would take whatever steps were possible from a production point of view to keep the pest in check, was given in a letter received by the P.B. Catchment Board at yesterday’s meeting from Mr. J. S. Jessep, East Coast Commissioner.

The letter was in answer to one from the board drawing the commissioner’s attention to the conservation hazard which the spread of the thistle represented in the Mangatu lands controlled by him.

Mr. H. J. F. Tombleson asked whether the commissioner had enclosed a cheque for £IOO, this being a reference to a challenge offered by Mr. Jessep in a letter to the Herald following publication of a report of the discussion which arose at the February meeting of the board. The chairman. Mr. J. H. Hair, said that no member of the board had taken up the commissioner's challenge. Settlers’ Opinion

Mr. E. M Newman commented that regardless of Mr. Jessep’s challenge, it was the conviction of settlers in the Mangatu that the board’s action had been fully justified, and that a vast area of back country was being infested and endangered. He held strongly that the board was fully justified from the conservation angle in taking up the matter. Mr. Tombleson stated that the Waikohu County Council had taken up the matter of variegated thistle on properties of the commission and had been unable to get very far. The commissioner had only to maintain that he could not get labour for thistle cutting and he put the council in a difficulty. The letter was received, and the clerk was instructed to express satisfaction with the assurance given by the commissioner. On the recommendation of Mr. E. A. Madden it was agreed that the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research be asked to give assistance to the board in the direction of biological control of variegated thistle.