INTRODUCING HEATHER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18224, 18 October 1922, Page 10

INTRODUCING HEATHER.

DIFFERENCE OF OPINION.

MEMBERS URGE CAUTION. (DJ TXLKaaAM.—SPECIAL RETOSTEA.] WELLINGTON. Tuesday.

There was a division of opinion among members during the discussion on the Tongariro National Park Bill this evening as to the -wisdom *oi introducing heather into the park area. Mr. F. F. Hockly (Rotorua) said he thought the park could bo made more attractive by continuing the planting of heather. It would then also be possible to provide the sport of grouse and woodcock shooting as the birds v/ould be quite at home in the heather.

Mr. W. H. Field (Otaki) suggested that the Government should proceed with caution and find out whether the heather was likely to spread before they planted hundreds of thousands of acreß of heather He was afraid that the heather ■would spread and become a menace to the native growth, as had occurred with gorse and Other plants. The danger, he thought, was that the heather would spread onto lands which it was not possible* to plough and then eradication would be difficult. Mr. Massey : Why, you can see patches of heather in Great Britain which have not spread in a thousand years. Mr. Field said that there was an instance nearer home in the Wellington Botanical Gardens where the heather was spreading. He would not like to see the native vegetation disturbed by any exotic. Dr. A. K. Newman (Wjslfington East) expressed the opinion that it would be nothing short of a calamity to allow heather to spread all over the district, although he knew that Mr. John Cullen, the honorary warden, in all, good faith thought otherwise. The country, he thought, could not afford to take such a risk for a handful of rich people who wanted to indulge in grouse shooting. Mr. A. D. McLeod (Wairarapa), said he did not think there was the danger of heather spreading as suggested by members. He mentioned that a great deal of cleared land in the highlands of Scotland had gone back to heather t but much of it was probably land which should never have been cleared. A lot of the highlands country was our own poor manuka land. "Even if it did spread, and it introduced some of the spirit it built up in its native country," said Mr. McLeod, " it would be a blessing to the Dominion." The Minister for Lands, in replying to the point* raised by members in discussing the Bill, made no reference to heather.