RAGWORT CONTROL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22345, 17 February 1936, Page 5

RAGWORT CONTROL

TE AWAMUTU CONFERENCE PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO ACT [from our own correspondent] TE AWAMUTU. Saturday Arising out of discussions by local and public bodies in the district concerning the ragwort menace, it has been decided to hold a conference at Te Awamutu on Thursday, with a view to bringing pressure to bear on the Government to provide legislation for the control of the pest. Suggestions'for consideration by the conference include a proposal that tho definition of an occupier under the Noxious Weeds Act should be amended to include any person owning any interest in any land, or who is or may become liable to pay any rates leviable in respect to such land. It was also proposed that provision should be _ made for a minimum fine of £5, and authority for inspectors to take action on their own initiative in cases where the occupier has permitted ragwort to grow on his own property to the risk of seeding other properties, the fines to be paid into a fund to be used for the eradication of ragwort. Under conditions in which ragwort infestation has rendered profitable farming impossible, and it is beyond the financial ability of the owner to .. deal with the ragwort,is proposed ~ that control should be taken by the inspector, who shall have power tc place the owner under the Rural Alortcagors' Final Adjustment Act. or similar legislation to be P ro A''^ d J whether the mortgagee be the.Crown or private. A further amendment • sought is that on unimproved land it shall be an offence for an occupier to burn off any area unless the land t,o treated is immediately put under cul- . . tivation and controlled so * a [ ® B b ™£ ;; wort is concerned; and that, tite> burn ing off of Crown and naaye land by irresponsible persons should P i