GORSE ON PUBLIC ROADS.

Southland Times, Issue 18056, 28 January 1903, Page 2

GORSE ON PUBLIC ROADS.

From time to time we receive oomplaints from settlers whose anger has been excited by a departmental demand that they shall forthwith clear the gorse from the road that runs along the boundary of their properties. With many of the complainants wehave no sympathy, since they belong to the class who are of opinion that ihe Government should do everything they do not choose to do themselves. If these people had their way the Government would be something in the nature of a national philanthropic institution for- the relief of settlers who let their cattle die from eating the Winton weed or their harvest rot from want of energy to take it in time On the other hand there are not a fe * complaints that are well-grounded and enlist sympathy. Such an one is that of the occupier of a number of sections, comprising five acres in all, at Waimatuku. On each of ihe fouj* sides of the property there is a road, and each road is infested with gorse, and it will cost him arduous and incessant labour to keep the noxious vegetation down. When he took up the land % he was given to understand that he would have to clear his sections only. This is a case in which the law appears to press hardly, and in which some assistance might reasonably be asked for and given. It strengthens the settler's claims that while the land was unoccupied the Crown was at no pains to keep. the gorse under. In this respect the private owner has to support the same injustice that is perpetrated in respect to rabbit?. The Crown will take no steps to poison the rabbits on Crown lands, but compels the owner of the adjoining land to keep his land reasonably, or unreasonably, free from tbe pest. The owner may do his utmost, but so long as the rabbits find an asylum on the Crown land through the fence he will labour at a task that has no end. It is unjust also that settlers should be saddled with the burden of keeping down gorse which springs up year after year from seed disseminated •from Crown lands where the gorse grows as in a nursery. The owner or occupier may toil strenuously to eradicate the weed from the part of the roadway for which he is responsible, but so long as a fresh crop is sown whenever the wind blows from the Crown section over the wny so long will his efforts bo defeated and himself

disheartened. While it is desirable, 'even necessary, that measures to prevent the spread of noxious weeds sbould be enforced the settler should be protected from such inequitable demands as those we have described. It is right that the Crown, or the local authority as it is in the case of gorse, should acknowledge responsibility in the matter also, and take care that the work of the private individual who is endeavouring to comply with the law are not nullified. To overcome the natural vigour of such weeds as gorse, and such pests aa rabbits, is a task difficult; enough in all conscience, and success in it is impo3sjjale if neighbouring Crovyn lands are preserves for tliepropagation of the nuisance. £here is a grievance here that calls for j remedial legislation. It is one that has frequently been pointed out, and it is to be hoped that (h© settlers will not be asked to submit to it much longer. It is a matter that the representative of country constituency should bring up in Parliament,