PRICKLY PEAR MENACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18322, 12 February 1923, Page 8

PRICKLY PEAR MENACE.

NEW SOUTH WALES PEST.

MILLIONS OF ACRES AFFECTED.

The growing rpenace of the prickly pear: in New South Wales is causing grave concern to the Minister for Lands (Mr. Wcame), who said recently that it ' represented the greatest problem with which the Government is faced., :

Some of the finest land in the State is infected with prickly pear, and as the spread of the pest is taking place at a rate of nearly half a million acres a year the seriousneSs of the position is apparent. Mr. Wearne said that the pear and its rapid spread constituted a serious menace to the settlement of the State. He had brought the matter forward at eVery conference of the Farmers and Settlers' - Association that he had attended, and since he had been a member of Parliament there had not been a session in which he has not raised it. He had now determined to introduce a Bill during the next session to provide protection for non-infested areas, to assist the owners of partly and heavily infested - areas to eradicate the pest, and, place Crown lands under occupation, giving the' occupants a freehold title to the areas upon the clearing of ; the pear where the • cost of the eradication .is equal to the value the land. :> " There are 10,000 of pear-infested land within the County of Cumberland alone," said Mr. Wearne. "In the State there are 6,000,000 acres of infested land, but,' the seriousness of the position does not stop there. The pear is becoming daily more dense, and spreading at an alarming rate on to good lands. Much of our valuable lands are to-day absolutely ruined because of it, and it is only by killing the pear and placing land-under cultivation > that we can overcome the menace. The best wav to destroy the prickly pear is to bring tne land bearing it into profitable occupation, and under crop. Land which would remain fori all time . pearinfested under pastoral conditions may easHj; be cleared,, and placed under cultivation, v Take, ' for instance, the land on the proposed railway from Camurra to Boggabilla. This land, comprising many thousands of acres, in every way suitable for wheat-growing, is now heavily infested with prickly pear. It is lying idle, and is a menace to the adjacent country. Yet land close to it cultivated for wheat won the competition for the! best wheat farm in.New South .Wales." '