NOXIOUS ACTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVI, Issue 2296, 30 August 1894, Page 3

NOXIOUS ACTS.

[advertisement.]

“ When a man begins to do wrong he cannot answer for himself how far he may be carried on. He does not see beforehand, ho cannot know where he will find himself after the sin is committed. One false step leads to another; one evil concession requires another.” So with nations.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Lot Burns and old Chancer unite The praise of tho daisy to sing ; Let Wordsworth of celandine write, And crown her tho Queen of the Spring. The hyacinth’s classical fame Let Milton embalm in his verse ; Be mine the glad task to proclaim The charms of untrumpeted furze. Horace Smith. Sir, —There are just now two Bills before Parliament calculated each in its way to do incalculable injury to New Zealand. The one the Lands for Settlement Bill ? the other the Bill whereby it is proposed to declare gorse or furzo a “ noxious weed,” penal to sow it and all now growing to be eradicated at any cost. It cannot be supposed for one moment that I am to sit content by my fireside with my pipe and my Family Herald reading and pondering over past possibilities, whilst this fine young country, ray country, the country in which I was born, is being driven cruelly, wickedly and insanely to wreckage and destruction. Newspapers, faugh! Ministers, faugh! Statesmen, faugh !' Liberals, faugh! Conservatives, phangh! These your rulers and guides, of these all and sundry your o-ods! A very sorry lot of gods ! What we require just now. in New Zealand is a New Zealand Gods’ Exterminating Association, one of the primary duties of such Association, before they commence operations, to see that they are duly provided with an ample of Archbishops in order and to the good end that they may fittingly, properly and becomingly ‘‘open the proceedings with prayer.” Tho introducer of these, the aforesaid measures before Parliament, is our great Minister the Minister for Lands, one who when _ he undertakes a thing it has “ got to be did.” “Facts are stubborn things.” “Mon, what a great fact” our Minister for Lands “maun he.” “Heigh diddle the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon.’’ (No she didn’t, she jumped np at the moon, stupid. How could she possibly reach over the moon,) Let us picture to ourselves a “coo ” junking over our Minister of Lands. The dash of astonishment commingled with a wisk of ire at the audacity of said ” coo ” so daring to jump over our great Minister. Tho Minister for Lands, Mr Minister McKenzie, demme! Pretty, pretty! Then look at our Parliament, all just now a lopsided arrangement. Ministers with their soulless majority like a great all down crushing ill-constructed ironclad. The Opposition like a woo dingey being sculled almost solo by one Newman, the valorous. Is there sense in this, from, oven an ordinary business point of view P Is this the way to insure a wise and piudont decision and judgment in all things? Ladies, is this your doing? Don’t let this sort of thing occur again. Naughty, very naughty! There are newspapers and there are newspapers. There are Ministers and there are Ministers. There are statesmen and there are statesmen. There are oxen and thoro are oxen. Then there are swine. But one may and with somewhat of apparent fairness ask what possible connection can there be between statesmen and swine, Then there are o-ontlemen. No one in his wildest dreams would ever dream of connecting gentlemen with swine. A true gentleman, a good and true man, like a really good and true woman, the “noblest work of God.” Gentlemen are rather at a discount just now. Not quite so abundant in Wellington just now, perhaps, as they should ho or oimbt to be, with a view to the general welfare and good. Ladies, let me ask you is this your doing ? Is this the way to “ found a great nation ? If this sort of thing occurs again you will all have to be whipped. Naughty, very, very, most naughty ! (Backs up by the million. Hoighty-toity ! Meeaow !) But enough of this ; as the Maori says, “ Ka hurt." As I have stated above, there are two Bills

before Parliament, though one has not yet been introduced, calculated each in its way to do incalculable injury, to New Zealand, the Lands for Settlement Bill and the Bill whereby it is proposed to declare gorse or furze a " noxious weed.” Now, if I can show that gorse, so far from being a “ noxious weed,” is a most useful plant and likely to prove more beneficial to New Zealand than any other plant, may I not fairly ask our Liberals, as they call themselves, the majority no doubt honestly anxious for the advancement and welfare of the country, though in a great measure just now being misled by others, to pause, make due enquiry and may be find that the Lands for Settlement Act. so far from being likely to prove a beneficial measure, is the rather likely to prove a most “ noxious,” mischievous and destructive measure. I may say that I myself, in common with others, but lately detested the sight of •jorso. I looked upon an acre gorsed as an acre lost. Regarded gorse as a plant to exterminate at any cost. Some two years since 1 went over to Collingwood with a view, at a place called Parapara, to dive Into the mysteries of slides and leads. The results of my researches were most unsatisfactory. But I found what was of far more value than gold. I found that gorse was an excellent fodder plant for sheep, and that on poor lands, otherwise and heretofore regarded as useless to man. f may say that now for two years I have made gorse my study. 1 have tried experiments with it in many ways. Sdme time after my return from Collingwood I left for the Bay of Islands. I went over}and from Whangarei to Kawakawa. The country as a rule looked very different to the—well, say, the Canterbury Plains, or the lands from Paikakariki to Taranaki, or the Hawke’s Bay district. I drove from Pakaraka over rather bad roads on two occasions, one day fifteen miles, another eleven miles. The country the same —poor; few human beings, very few cattle and sheep, but plenty of ti-tree. As I stood on the deck of the steamer at Russell I saw the so-called town of Russell, no larger than when I was a youth, the country around looking somewhat deserted, very much so. I then made up my mind I would try if I could not do something for the poor despised old Bay of Islands, where I was born, now-, let us say, some 43 years since (near enough), and the despised lands generally in the North. On one occasion I happened to remark to a young man who was with me that the only thing to be done with the lands in the North was to sow them all with gorse. That same young man after told a friend of mine he thought I “ must be mad !” When I heard this I felt persuaded I must be on the right track. Any man to attempt to deal with these lands on the hitherto approved principles he would most assuredly fail and lose his money. I could see some system would have to he adopted so radically different to all hitherto approved that anyone trying it would at first glance be regarded as mad.. To sow lands with gorse should he sufficiently radical for most people. Having now gorse “on the brain,” I knew if I were to attempt to sow gorse in the Wairarapa the settlers all would begin to cry “police”! I then wont to Kirikiri. 1 found the sheep doing well on the gorse, having little else to eat besides. The lands round Kirikiri are very poor. The drainage is into the sea. I therefore thought this an excellent place to experiment with gorse, and as the place was for sale, I purchased it. At Pakaraka, mynephew told me he had spent considerable sums of money in exterminating gorse, as many others have done. He showed me twe small blocks of good land he had fenced off and abandoned, as it would coat more than the ground was worth to exterminate the gorse. I told him perhaps he was fencing off his best pasture. He then told me he had spent £75 in rooting up gorse in one of his paddocks, and that he, his brother-in-law and his shepherd noticed that the paddock did not carry nearly so many sheep after the gorse was destroyed. As we were walking over the property we came to a small patch, about four acres, where the gorse had been stumped up and ploughed and the young gorse had come up and was then from eight inches to a foot high. There was about half gorse and half grass growing over the four acres. I at once said that was just the very thing I wanted. We fenced off this four acres and put some 500 sheep on it. (This was about the end of April.) These 500 sheep ate up all the grass—which had had sheep grazing on it before—and topped all the young shoots of the gorse. That four acres was then shut up for about four weeks, and carried 20 ewes from the beginning of June into the spring, which were taken out with their lambs at docking time, all with their lambs in excellent condition. It, of course, carried more sheep in the summer time, I believe had the whole four acres been covered with gorse, with grass graving with it, it could have carried many more sheep. This last winter the same four acres was stocked with sheep with even better results. Had any four acres of. the grass lands adjoining been treated in a similar manner it would not have carried more than a third of the number of sheep. In Mr Squires’ case, who feeds his sheep on gorse, in the other island, south of Collingwood, he told me that his predecessor thought the correct thing was to exterminate the gorse, and failing to make a success of the place he sold out and left. On the other hand, when Mr Squires purchased the place, he rather encouraged the gorse, as he found after it was burnt down the seed grew up, and it sprouted again from the stumps, and his sheep did very well on it. In the case of Mr Kemp, also Mr Bedggood at the Kerikeri, Bay of Islands, the land is like Mr Squires’, rather poor. Some one had started many years before they purchased to sheep-farm on this land, and had abandoned it, but had meantime erected a short line of fence and planted gorse. This gorse subsequently spread over the country. When Messrs Kemp and Bedggood in after years took sheep there they proceeded to burn down the gorse with a view of getting rid of it. To their surprise they found that the gorse came up thicker than ever, and that their sheep were eating it and doing well on it. Wo may all yet have to be thankful for the results obtained by Messrs Squires, Kemp and Bedggood. Having found the sheep would do well on the poor lands with gorse, I resolved to part with my good lands and to get my sons to devote their attention to turning to good account the poor land, lands hitherto regarded as useless to man. This we are now doing. We are quite willing to sell our good lands. We only want a fair price for them. But men ask, if ■ you sow the country with gorse how are you going to keep it down ? Will it not get away from you ? This is most simple. What makes gorse so useful is this, or rather,these —gorse will grow anywhere. Wherever it is growing it will feed sheep. The gorse, unlike other plants, supplies its own fuel. Any plant of gorse three years old, provided it is thick enough, can he burnt to the ground, whence it soon springs up again. Every shoot of gorse when gorse is growing—in the warmer climate of the north probably some nine months in the year—is soft and succulent, and excellent food for sheep. Then, again, the roots of gorse go deep down, and it derives its nourishment ’from the depths below, and always improves than takes from the soil on the surface. Lauds sown with gorse must be subdivided more than is necessary with grass, but to what extent I cannot at present say. But anyone sheep-farming with gorse must have his gorse thoroughly under control, so that when sheep are put on it they have got to eat it. They soon get fond of it and do very well on it. Wherever gorse has been growing for some time and is burnt down and grass seed scattered, grass will grow. The best grasses to sow are soft meadow and cocksfoot. They grow with and through the gorse. The proper method to be adopted in feeding sheep on gorse is to keep shifting the sheep. It is better for tbo sheep and the gorse plants. If sheep are taken off gorse when it is growing for three or four weeks the plants become covered with a dense mass of velvety succulent shoots. A sufficient number of sheep, 30 more or less to.the aero, should theu be put on so as to. oat it down quickly j then shift them on to another block and. so continue. Pern is, of course, a difficulty, as it keeps growing up and choking the young plants of gorse. Cold, clay hills with ti-tree and poor are not so well suited for gorse. I believe gorse should be left to grow wild upon such country for some years until it has quite taken possession. If then it is burnt in the summer the ti-tree will disappear, but eventually it will grow good gorse and grass as well. Poor hills with sandy soil are bettor adapted for gorse. What of the winter ? This, of course, is the difficulty, as the gorse does not grow in the winter and becomes hard and prickly. If gorse is properly fed down in the spring and summer mouths, any shoots on the plants when they become prickly are short shoots. Sheep that have been eating the shoots when soft in summer, as the shoots become prickly, nip hold of them at the end, give a slight jerk, when the shoots break off at the stem. They then, turn them round with their tongues and chew them up with the pricks pointing outwards. This is excellent food for sheep, and in a great measure helps through the winter. Then again, if care is taken to ascertain the acreage that can be properly fed down during the spring and summer months, and the balance a certain percentage is shut off every year in the spring and left to grow. Theu if that acreage or percentage is burnt down the following autumn, that also will provide a large quantity of feed for the winter. Then again, if smaller blocks of land are ploughed, and the soil duly prepared—manured if necessary—and sown very thickly with gorse seed, so as to insure the gorse growing up thick and spindley for 12 months, and that is then mown and crushed with machines now made for the purpose, it comes from the machine like moss, and is excellent food for

Confirmed on Fmrth Page.