GORSE NUISANCE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLI, Issue 20445, 16 June 1936, Page 10

GORSE NUISANCE

ERADICATION IN CANTERBURY

LOCAL BODIES TO CONFER

The executive committee set up at a conference of County Councils in Canterbury and other interested bodies held at Ashburton last October to consider proposals for the eradication and control of gorse by tree planting may meet in Ashburton on Friday next, according to a statement made by the secretary, Mr L. J. Collins to a “Timaru Herald” representative.

The committee comprises Messrs H. B. S. Johnstone Waimate County Council), chairman, C. J. Talbot (Mackenzie), J. Deans (Malvern), D. J. Morrow (Ashburton), C. B. Thacker (Akaroai and L. J. Collins (Waimate), secretary.

At the original meeting a motion was passed urging n the Government the necessity for the control and eradication of gorse, more particularly on the poorer lands on the foothills of Canterbury.

The object of the committee is to draw up comprehensive scheme on the lines set out by the chairman (Mr Johnstone) as follows:

(a) The State Forest Service. —In this case once the Lands Department has secured the land, which is the first sine qua non. this service could function, plant the trees and attend to and harvest the resultant asset for the State, or.

(b) After resumption of the land by the State it could be handed to the County Councils for planting by them, in which case, a charge could be made to the counties for the land of some small amount plus survey costs; such charges to become payable by the counties in, say, twenty-five years or at such time as the asset becomes realisable, the counties to undertake to do the work of planting and supervision and to own the asset and the land at the expiration of the period. It was suggested that the State Forest Service could supply the trees to the z Counties at cost price, or, (c) Again, after resumption of the land by the State, let the Counties do the work required with unemployed labour, the State paying to the Counties all costs incurred and taking over the asset as soon as the trees are definitely established, or, (d) The State to resume the land free and plant, and at the end of the period to divide the asset with the owner, this under agreement between the parties, or,

(e) The Government to take over the land at an agreed price and hand it to the Unemployment Board, who have the necessary labour and finance and the asset would then be the Board's and useable to reduce direct unemplojment taxation in future.