GIANT THISTLES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6073, 10 January 1898, Page 2

GIANT THISTLES.

A thistle eleven feet high. That is the kind of specimen which a representative of the New Zealand Times saw. at the laboratory at the rear of the Government Buildings a few days ago. This remarkable specimen came from the Marlborough district, not far from Blenheim. It is of the Californian variety. Another sample over which the rule was run by Mr Kirk was Bft Gin in length. Close by was a " woolly-headed " thistle 6ft high, from the Weber (Seventy-mile Bush) di3trict. During the last few years this thistle has been spreading very rapidly over the Crown lands in some portions of the Wairarapa. The " woolly-head " resembles the variety commonly known as the "Scotch," and is so called because its leaves. (which are larger. and more prickly than those of the .".Scotch ") are covered with a dense growth resembling tihe inner coating of a fleece. Suoh vegetable growth is a testimony to the richness of New Zealand soil, to say the least. ASIATICS IN VANCOUVER. The advance of the Chinese and the Japanese as far weßt as Vancouver, British Columbia, is making itself felt seriously in that part of the world, where the white man is going to the wall somewhat considerably in certain industries. Tho Japanese now fill the sawmills and fisheries, and have thus taken hold of the two important industries of the country, while in the canning works the Chinese are employed almost exclusively. A Wellington man who has just returned from Vancouver says he thoroughly agrees with the restrictive legislation passed in this colony to chebk the influx of Asiatics, for it will prevent growing up here a similar state of things to that existing in that country. The canning of fish is done by Chinese, and it sometimes happens that on the * occasion of a big catch of salmon, says the returned New Zealander, some of the fish is bad before it is put in the tins. Still, it is put in just the same by the Chinese.