£700 FOR INSECTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19373, 10 July 1937, Page 4

£7OO FOR INSECTS

GISBORNE CONTRIBUTION FARMERS’ WEED MENACE VISIT FROM DR. MILLER Gisborne fanners are promising £7OO for the control of two weeds, the bidibidi and variegated thistle, by insect parasites. In view of this, Dr. D. D. Miller, chief entomologist, Cawthron Institute, has arranged to visit Gisborne to confer with the‘Poverty Bay and East Coast Sheepowners’ Union, through whom the donations have been made.

Advice of Dr. Miller's projected visit has been received by Mr. A. Stock, secreteary of the union. Mr. Stock said that he had not been advised yet of the date of the visit, but it was expected to be in the next few weeks.

Already £SOO has been sent to the Cawthron Institute from the union as a result of donations received from farmers of the district for the purpose of assisting the institute in carrying out preliminary investigations in the matter of securing a suitable parasite for the control of variegated thistle. No particular insect was in view yet, so far as was known. In addition, the union had set itself to raise £2OO for supplies of the Chilian saw-fly for the control of bidibidi. Mr. Stock said that no difficulty was expected in raising this amount, in view of the ready response to the appeal for the variegated thistle fund, in which individual donations were as high as £SO.