VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1935, Page 7

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

VIEWS ON CURRENT TOPICS

ERADICATION OF RAGWORT.

SUPPORT FOR SETTLER'S ACTION.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Mr. Dromgool, Whangamomona, is to be congratulated on the stand he has taken to pay no more rent or rates till his neighbours are compelled to keep down ragwort. The apathy of toga! bodies to this menace is simply amazing, while the Government only acts spasmodically. If every M.P. was compelled to put in a fortnight spraying ragwort on the hills and ridges of Taranaki’s hinterland we would soon have something definite done. We have a fine example, of ineptitude on land on Okoke Road, three miles south of Urenui. Here, year after year, is to be seen a waving mass of -the yellow flower, enough to smother the country for miles around. Representation has been made to every authority, but it is seemingly nobody’s business. . The few county councils which are tackling the problem under the powers recently conferred on them by legislation are to be complimented, but what about the great majority of county councils which refuse the responsibility? In conversation with Mr. G. W. Rogers, our riding member for Clifton county, I gathered that the Clifton council has no interest at all in the destruction of ragwort. But councils and the Government would soon wake up if thousands of farmers followed the example of Mr. Drom- ' gool. Every farmer should heartily support him, for his method is the only one that will succeed. I would suggest that in future council elections farmers only vote for men who are pledged to destroy ragwort by every possible means.—l am W. P. KENAH. Urenui, Jan. 17. MENACE AT INGLEWOOD. (To the Editor.) Sir,—Having read in yesterday's paper regarding ragwort in Whangamomona county, I desire to say that one has no need to go more than one mile from the Inglewood post office to see a garden of several acres of the menace. Some of it has been in flower since last June and I am sure that the seed from it has blown far, ere now, ~ I feel like that settler regarding rates if the Inglewood County Council does not take action regarding ragwort,", as. I have been for the last nine years trying to keep weeds down, on a neglected farm in Inglewood county and spent a large sum of money on ragwort poison also. I am afraid that ragwort is gaining ground fast in the Inglewood county and in ihe town of Inglewood.—l am, etc., • • ’ ' ’ RATEPAYER., Inglewood, Jan. 17; ’ •

CENSORSHIP OF BOOKS.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Tlie controversy that has been conducted in your correspondence columns upon the attitude of Professor Sewell towards the abolition of censorship

is indicative of a certain mentality. Liberty of speech is permitted in this fre« country of ours only so long as it moves along recognised channels, and censorship of thought, of speech and of actions has been a creed for SO long that it is now accepted blindly. We New Zealanders are a delightful people and we sit in our chaotic little island with charming complacency. Now , and again we chide gently, but without being greatly affected, the outbursts of an unbroken spirit. We do not break it; we smother it. And our young men have hardly the energy left even to regret in themselves, the oncoming of bovinity. “There was a young man who said ‘Damn’! It appears to me now that I amJust a being that moves

In predestinate grooves Not a bus, not a bus, but a tram?” But unfortunately that young man could not have been a New Zealander. —I am, etc.,

ALMOST A TRAM. New Plymouth, Jan. 18, j