GORSE

North Canterbury Gazette, Volume 6, Issue 65, 6 April 1937, Page 4

GORSE

The Department of Agriculture’s report on the spread of gorse along the foothills of North Canterbury is so complete, so sane, and so important that we have seen fit to reproduce it in full in this issue. It is unfortunately impossible to describe it accurately as timely, because it was needed 20 or 30 years ago, as the officers who prepared it have to admit. Perhaps the best thing about it is that it leaves no possible loophole for any further procrastination. The gorse is there, it is spreading, fast, and its spread cannot possibly be checked effectively unless the problem is faced in its entirety by an authority capable of assembling all available resources. To see any alternative would be to admit blindness. This is just another instance of the remarkable ability of the Advisory Committee on Tree Planting in North Canterbury to strike the straight and narrow path even as it wanders through the desert.