BAD NEIGHBOURS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 73, Issue 6284, 23 September 1946, Page 5

BAD NEIGHBOURS

INCREASED FARM COSTS AND TROUBLES

The destruction of fences on farm properties adjacent to railway lines was the subject of strong comment by Mr W. J. Broadfoot, National, Waitomo), when the Estimates were under discussion in the House of Representatives. Hundreds of miles of fences had been destroyed by fire, j which, in his opinion, had arisen as a i result of sparks from railway locoi motives. Mr Broadfoot stressed the l efforts farmers had made to maintain i production during the war period, and said their time was now fully occupied in endeavouring to catch up with maintenance, and they had no time to attend to the affairs of those many miles of fencing. Through destruction of fences, stock wandered on to the line and were killed, and then the owners were sued for allowing the stock to trespass on the line, a trespass that was made possible through damage done by the Railways Department or its negleot. The department denied responsibility: it was not a question of who lit the fire at all. The Railways-Department had a statutory protection, w-hich was a piece of prehistoric legislation that should be eliminated. Mr Broadfoot instanced a settler who required a mile and a half of fencing. He was bound on one side by Native land, which made no contribution for fencing; on the second side by Crown land from which there was no contribution either; and on the third side by the railway, and the department denied responsibility. On the fourth side there was a decent neighbour who did contribute. The basis of the problem, said Mr Broadfoot, was caused by the Railways Department allowing heavy secondary growths to occur between the rails and the fences. The farm- 1 ers only wanted a fair thing. They . did not want to thrust a liability on the department which did not belong to it, but the department had created the problem and should pay for it. In other countries, the noxious weeds were sprayed from a moving container on the railways, and surely something like that could be adopted in New Zealand to cope with the secondary growth problem and eliminate the continuous trouble being experienced.