NOXIOUS WEEDS

Otago Witness, Issue 3334, 6 February 1918, Page 13

NOXIOUS WEEDS

CONFERENCE OF CLTJTHA FARMERS. .UNDERSTANDING WITH SECRETARY FOR ACRICULTURE. On Friday afternoon delegates from all the surrounding branches of the New Zealand Farmers' Union met in the Olutha County Council Chambers to discuss with Mr Pope (Secretary for Agriculture) the j/osition with regard to the enforcement of the Noxious Weeds Act during this year. Mr A. S. Malcolm, M.P. for Clutha, occupied the chair. " The Chairman, in introducing the various deputations to Mr Pope, said it was probably not possible in the whole of New Zealand to get a body of men who were better acquainted with the facts of the case. Mr John Christie said farmers at the present time were merely wasting their time cutting "the Californian thistles. Cutting and hoeing the thistles only propagated them, so as sensible folk they decided to drop the work. He was not going to deny that the Act in general -was a very useful measure, especially in dealing with the bramble and gorse nuisance, but ■when applied to the Californian thistle and ragwort it had proved a dismal failure. The Agricultural Department was very crude in its methods of enforcing the Act. It had a kind of the "bull at the gate" style About it. The department should advise fav;nera more and educate them how to get of certain weeds. It should be more scientific in its methods. When a ma,n had a paddock of sorrel he was not told to cut it. but told how to get rid of it—he was told to p'ut a ton or two of lime on it. In the same way the farmers should be told how to eradicate the thistle. His own experience showed that the best way to get rid of them was to plough the land just before the New Year and put a ton or two of lime on it, and afterwards sow down in grass. If the department summonsed every man that failed to destroy the thistles there would - be some sense about it, for there would have been such an outcry that the Act would have been put out of force long ago. Mr Pannett (Clydovale) said that in the opinion of his branch the thistle question was a big one. Seeing that the farms were so short of labouv it was only fair that the Act should bo suspended. If the country wanted wheat, the farmers were not receiving any encouragement to grow it by the way the thistle business was managed. His branch desired to seo tho Act hold in abeyanco till the close of the war and for six months thereafter. Mr Craig, representing the Greenfield settlors, said that in his district opinion was that the Act should be hold in abeyance. Mr T. Maginness (Owaka) said that the way the Act was enforced in the bush country bordered on the ridiculous. In that country the thistle thrived, and it was practically impossible for a man to cut them around all the losrs and fallen trco stumps. It was merely labouring in vain. In the onso of one block oF ZOO ncres that had never boon cut at all the thistles wore killing themselves out. —("Hear, hear.") Mr H. E. Steele (Clinton) said that before the Act came into force he used to cut them every year, but they only grew worse. The thistles on the Crown land? adjoining his were never cut. and they had .died out quicker than his own. If tho thistles were cut before they blossomed

they only sprang up again. The best plan was to allow them tb seed, and they would gradually choke themselves out. Mr P. A. Watt (Warepa) said that it was ridiculous at present to ask the farmer to cut the thistles, as he had sufficient to do to get labour for his holding to do the necessary work. Labour might be available, but it could not be said that competent labour was to be found. Messrs A. North (Owaka) and Edwards (Waiwera) supported the previous speakers. With regard to Mr Malcolm's request for a satisfactory announcement that the Act be suspended for the duration of the war, and, say, six months afterwards,— Mr Popo said it- wag not a question that he could give such an answer*to. Parliament alone could suspend an Act. He maintained that the Act, as at present, was only a few degrees removed from' total suspension. It -was an offence against the Act to let the plants flower and go to seed, and the notice sent out by the department was merely a reminder of this. Mr Pannett asked if it were a fact that the Minister had said that there would be no proceedings taken till otter this meeting ? Mr Pope: Ho said no legal proceedings. Mr Pannett asked what would be the position after the meeting. Mr Pope said that perhaps the farmers had got a wrong view of the department's work. He understood that the farmers were out for the good of the country, and not to forward their own selfish aims. The officers of the department and the Minister were just in the same street. With regard to the Noxious Weeds Act, he personally thought that it stood in need of radical change. As it stood, the Act was not a jrood one. Ifc was more foolish in actual fact than it appeared on the surface. Every farmer thought that the Act was to compel •him to cut his thistles, but ifc was for nothing of the kind. J =* Mr Christie: That is what we aro_ compelled to do, anyway. Mr Pope: That is what you are compelled to do if you do not do anything better for yourself. The Noxious Weeds Act is for the protection of your neighbours. A. 3 a matter of fact, the department does not care what you do with your own land as long as you don't do any harm, to your neighbour's. Continuing, Mr Pope explained that if the farmer showed the inspector that his interests were in cleaning the thistle out, then the inspector was not going to summon that farmer. Ho had a good knowledge of all the. various classes of land in New Zealand, and ho coxdd say that in every case where the inspector was taken off for a few months or had to leave the job for any rfeason the district" concerned certainly rapidly went bactk during that time. Mr Malcolm referred to the active part he had taken in Parliament and his attempts to have the Act suspended. Five or six years ago the Taieri Plain had been overrun with the Canadian thistle, and the Minister had given the farmers a practical assurance that there'would bo no prosecutions. He would ask Mr Popo to come to an agreement with the farmers that day". He was quite satisfied that the country would not suffer in any way through the suspension of the Noxious Weeds Act. Mr Pope said ho was glad the matter 'had been put in such a practical way. _ How would it do if the meeting gave him an assuranco on behalf of their branches that they would do the best they could with the thistles for this year, and he would then give his assurance that he would do everything in his power to prevent further prosecutions. It was unanimously decided to give Mr Pope the assurance. The position could be reviewed at the end of the year.