RAGWORT WEED MENACE

Taranaki Daily News, 28 April 1934, Page 11

RAGWORT WEED MENACE

DEPUTATION TO MINISTER. REPLY DOES NOT SATISFY. Members of the Ratapiko .branch of the Farmers’ Union were not satisfied with tthe reply received from the Minister of Agriculture in response to their representations regarding the ragwort menance in the district, which formed one of the subjects placed before the Hon. E. A. Ransom, Minister of Lands, during his visit to Ratapiko early in March. At the annual meeting of the Ratapiko branch of the Farmers’ Union last night a reply forwarded by Mr. W. J. Polson, M.P., from the Hon. C. E. MacMillan, Minister of Agriculture, to whom the Minister of Lands had referred the matter, was read. The reply stated that the statement made by Mr. Nolan that sodium chlorate was costing Is 5d a pound was difficult to understand as he understood the selling price was about 7d and Bd, and slightly less for quantities in drum lots. Naturally the retail price by small country storekeepers might in some instances be high, but those were not common, and being the exception could not be taken as any indication of the selling price. Sodium chlorate could be landed to-day at any New Zealand port at about £45 a ton c.i.f. and e. and he understood importers were not attempting to make unreasonable profit. Taranaki was admittedly badly affected with ragwort, but during the past two or three years good use had been made of sodium chlorate, and a very appreciable improvement was taking place. It would take many years yet of driving force to arrive at a position that could be called satisfactory. • In the Auckland district members of the county councils had co-operated with the department in an endeavour to. make the best use of relief labour offering in the district for ragwort destruction with some success, and it was hoped that next season more extended use of that arrangement would be possible. His department had made arrangements to have larger supplies of sodium chlorate available for Crown and Native lands than had been possible in the past, and a determined attempt would be made to deal with such lands on a larger scale next season. , ~, . That was no reply, remarked Mr. A. Gannaway, who was one of the deputation. It was side-stepping the issue, he said, and was no excuse. More had been added to the letter than had been stated at the meeting. When sodium chlorate was first recognised as a medium for eradicating ragwort the Ratapiko branch had been responsible for a remit being passed asking the Government to take control of sodium chlorate. They were then informed that there was no necessity for that as the price would never og above 3d a pound. Now it was admitted that the price was up to Bd. The president, Mr. M. Nolan, confirmed the previous speaker’s remarks, stating that he had never mentioned Is 5d a pound. Mr. J. Edmo. .ds said he had applied on three different occasions to obtain the services of unemployed men in order to cope with ragwort, and when finally his application was acceded to there was no men available. The secretary, Mr. Dust, said he had been able to secure for the purpose a local unemployed married man, the conditions being that he had to pay £1 a week.