Oxford and Cust Observer. SATURDAY JUNE 16th, 1894. THE GORSE NUISANCE.

Oxford Observer, Volume V, Issue V, 16 June 1894, Page 2

Oxford and Cust Observer. SATURDAY JUNE 16 th, 1894. THE GORSE NUISANCE.

There is no denying that the gorse question is becoming a very grave one and the funds of the various Road- boards have been heavily trenched upon in trying to cope with the nuisance Comparatively few men know except those gentlemen who have been, members of Road Boards and CountyOouncils the large amount .of money that has been spent during these last few years in trying to exterminate it in their various boundaries. The gorse like the .sparrow or anything else you don't want is easily acclimatised and there is no mistake it has come to stay and like the poor it will be always with us, it is not particular about climate, soil or aspect it will flourish anywhere and 'especially where you dont want it Time was^ when gorseplants : were sold at half a crown a hundred and a farm enclosed and ''and subdivided with good gorse Hedges,' providing good shelter ' and impregnable live walls, was so much the more valuable, but like the sparrow it increases exceedingly and its encroachments are so rapid that it taxes all the energies of both private jowners and public bodies to ]know what to do with it. "We I wish we could suggest some {system of lessening the evil as !no matter how vigilant a Eoad (Board may be or how anxious to enforce their power or how willing to spend the funds at their disposal all will be } of no avail unless the ratepayers who they represent will act in concert, with them. We kniow of one instance in which this was done and the result both to the landowner and the Board was highly encouraging. The Proprietor wrbte.--The gofse is encroaching along my boundary, and I never planted- aiiyj I will I grub half of it, if the Board does the other. Such a common sense and generous offer could notfbe r^fused^44d| think if ratepayers would generally imitate such a yftse exam-; pie; their wduld "haVlr V much more satisfactory balance sheet at the. end ofttHe year. J ' And yet the encroachment of tHejgprseji^ not an unmixpd,eyil. It diminishes the power 01 the fekliP^sJl (^) 4 the;d^3i%^e(iflator. He soon discovers to^his post I%at&ne' -gdrslßiHß (e^hlr compel him to work his land or jelse let somebo^felseMfe M who will cultivate it. In any neighburhood where the gorse has got a good hold, land hold-

ing for a high price and paying ... ;' local taxation is becoinjljg a losing game. Some would call it the interposition of Providence to punish a dog in the manger, but we will col tent ourselves by saying that it serves him right inasmuch as he has monopolised' what he cannot use and begrudges anybody that would. . " ~** There are Acts and amended Acts in plenty dealing with the subject, buV all of them seem as capable of as many ~ different interpretations as the. book of Job, and we warn any ratepayer that it will pay him a great deal better to devote a portion of his time to gorse grubbing rather than to- study . 4 law on the subject. . We have known a good many bush lawy- * ers and our experience is that * they generally eiid their re- , searches by' filing their Sched- v ule with assets -nil. We particularly not'ce one means by which the gorse has been caused to spread in this neighbourhood and that is bv the negligent. of Crown Tenants. We do not know how the kw stands in respect to these lands nor on what conditions they are leased, but we do know that it is a great injustice to neighbouring settlers to have their land seeded down from such a source and we do think that the Crown's Jarid Ranger should exercise his power (if lie has . any )i in this direction. We mentioned that gorse is not an unmixed evil and the following' extract proves that when culti/rated on some description of ' land it becomes a valuable forage plant. . " A year or two back an Australian came over to Waikato and bought sev- " eral thousand acres of land from the . Maoris for one shilling an acre. This' area was practically a desert which ( to i use an Australianisni ) "would not Tfatten a. bandicoot." The new settler got to -work at once, and men handling 'ploughs were soou turning up /he ungrateful soil in all directions. The neighbouring settlers viewSß the circumstance with wonder and pity, and 'm the stranger .and his operations was a" kind of sfcandingjoke in the regiohround ' about. The next thing that the sceptical neigh bpur.hq.od" heard was that the stranger was actually sowing gorse, and that he purposed fattening sheep on the - same, and; this circumstance amused his fellow settlers more than ever. Now the. new-fangled farmer is -recognised as one of; the most prosperous in those parts, anil gorse growing is a prominent local industry. Land has gone up in price, and there is no more available; at one shilling an acre. The soil is turned up every year, and a new crop sown in the same way that cereals are with us." a