WELLINGTON TOPICS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 1221, 7 June 1919, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

NOXIOUS WEEDS. NEGLIGENCE AND WASTE. (Special Correspondent) Wellington, June 6th. The Parliamentary Committee which is now moving about from place to place in search of information concerning the industries of the Dominion has a wide order of reference, and is turning it to good account. At its sitting yesterday, the chairman of the committee drew from Dr. Reakes, the Director of Agriculture, the astounding admission that the Noxious Weeds Act, of which a great deal has been heard throughout the country lately, while providing that blackberries shall be cut back a chain from the road, does not require owners to take any further steps to free_ their properties from the pest The existing legislation was practically useless, the Director said, and no real progress could be made with the eradication of the scourge till the law was amended.

SOMEONE SHOULD HANG. A practical farmer, commenting upon this surprising state of affairs, which must have been known to the officers of the Department of Agriculture for years past, declared this morning that someone should be hung in connection with the matter. In the Taranaki district there are 4,000 or 5,000 acres of land entirelycovered with blackberry, and manymore thousands of acres greatly reduced in value by the presence of the pest. Then in Wairarapa, Manawatu, and Wanganui vast areas are being threatened by the scourge, and in the Hutt valley the Government is allowing a great waste of blackberry to remain on State land and distribute the seeds all over the surrounding country. All hopes of entirely eradicating the pest must now be abandoned, but it can be in a measure controlled, and this ought to be the work of the immediate future.