RAGWORT PROSECUTION

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4954, 11 February 1937, Page 5

RAGWORT PROSECUTION

A DEFENDED ACTION. FINE OF 40/- IMPOSED. For failing to clear land of ragwort, N. B. Lusk was fined 40s and costs in the Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday-—Mr. J. Hine when the defendant stated his intention to plead not guilty, asked for the case to stand down until the afternoon in order that a witness for the prosecution might be called. The Borough noxious weeds inspector, Mr. W. Jones, said approximately 25 acres were infested —a certain amount of work had been done, but it had not been carried out satisfactorily, and the weed had flowered and ripened. J. W. Nicholson gave evidence that ragwort on the property for which Lusk was responsible as an agent carried ragwort in full bloom. The defendant detailed the operations to cope with ragwort. Since November, except for a period in January when sodium was unprocurable, he had employed either a man or a boy. He admitted that there was a patch of ragwort of two acres in one place, and about five acres of scattered ragwort in another. In imposing the fine, Mr. Levien commented that the work had apparently not been done systematically and properly.