NOXIOUS GROWTH ON COUNTY ROADS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 19 September 1945, Page 8

NOXIOUS GROWTH ON COUNTY ROADS

(To the Editor) Sir. —In your report of the last meet- . ing of the Waimea County Council in - Friday’s issue is a statement that: f “Notices have been served on property 1 owners to cut weeds in the Parker’s ? road ditch and it is proposed to serve • notices on the owners of property 1 through which the stream runs to the * sea to clear the water course.” This is in the Stoke riding. Then under the heading Motupiko riding there is a further statement to the effect that: “Arrangements have been made to cut the Kainui road frontages with a contractor’s gorse cutter.” What I want to know is this, if a con. tractor’s gorse cutter is available in one part of the district why is it not used in the Mahana-Ruby Bay district? The need here is as great or greater than in any other part of the country and I well remember that the chairman when giving an address at the opening of the Mapua Public Hall some seven months ago almost implored the people to clean up their frontages by eradicat- , ing noxious weeds. I would suggest to I Mr Corder that instead of praying ratepayers to do this necessary work he should issue a few summonses. It is all very well to request people to do this work, but does he think it a fair thing that the man who keeps his frontage clean should be allowed to keep on doing so whilst some of his neighbours never touch their gorse and brambles unless they receive an order from the County Engineer and then they do as little as possible? Some time ago we were informed that the council intended to purchase an up-to-date gorse-cutting machine and later we were told that the machine referred to was unsuitable for this district. lam informed that this class of plant is, in use in some counties in the South Island and that it operates very successfully. Of course one can hardly expect a body like the Waimea County Council | to invest in expensive labour-saving j machinery but surely it could be made to pay interest on capital and also working expenses. The work should be done by the council and charged up to ratepayers with the rate notices. Most of the byroads from Ruby Bay to Mahana and beyond are in a disgraceful state as regards gorse and blackberry with some thorny acacia to say nothing of briar thrown in for good measure. There i s a road near Mahana where I should say that it takes all his time for a truck driver to miss the gorse on both sides. On another road (in Ruby Bay) where lives a building contractor a cartage contractor and school bus proprietor, also about half a dozen owners of cars and lorries, the spread of gorse and blackberry is a disgrase to the council and those who own it. The gorse on the corners has recently been cut j back by the roadman, thus giving some relief but on both sides ot the road at intervals from top to bottom the gorse, I to put it mildly—has got completely) out of hand. This is, particularly so near the bottom ol the road where the gorse on the hillside nearly meets that on the outside. And now in legard to I road maintenance the council might bo able to obtain a few Ups if its mem- | bers studied an article headed: “Rain-! coats for Dirt Roads,” on Page 31 of the July number of the "Reader’s Digest.”—l am, etc., RATEPAYER. Mapua, 17th September.