The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursday & Saturdays. Saturday, August 20, 1898. THE ORCHARD AND GARDEN PESTS BILL.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXI, Issue 3791, 20 August 1898, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursday & Saturdays. Saturday, August 20, 1898. THE ORCHARD AND GARDEN PESTS BILL.

This measure, introduced by the Minister for Lands, provoked some discussion at the recent Conference of County Councils. If it becomes law it is likely to prove very vexatious to fruit growers. Under its provisions an officer may enter into any conveyance or upon any orchard, land or premises, or on board any vessel, for the purpose of inspecting any plants or fruit or the packages containing the same or with which the same may have come in contact, and shall have all such powers and authorities (including power to dig up plants, open packages, and otherwise) as he deems necessary for enabling him to enforce the provisions of the Act. If the Inspector declares the plants, fruit, &c, to be diseased or infected, he is empowered to give notice to the owner who must take such steps as the former thinks necessary to eradicate or prevent the spread of the disease. Should the owner fail to act to the satisfaction of the inspector, the latter can then dispose of plants, fruit, &c„ in the manner he thinks fit at the expense of the owner, and the latter will not thereby be relieved from other liabilities under the Act. An inspector can also employ as many assistants as he deems necessary, and the persons whose neglect has been the cause of this employment will be compelled to pay the expense thereby incurred. No inspector, authorised officer or assistant will be deemed to be a trespasser by entry or removal, and no person will be entitled to any compensation in respect of anything done by a Government officer in taking measures to eradicate or prevent the spread of disease or carrying out the provisions of the Act, or in regard to any loss or injury that may directly or indirectly result

therefrom. Then if the owner of au orchard discovers any disease in his orchard he must within 24 hours give written notice to the Secretary for Agriculture. If au inspector considers that any disease exists or has

- existed in an orchard within the proceeding three months it will be declared infected. The Minister may ltJ then by Gazette notice declare the orchard to be infected, and until c the revocation of the notice no plants , or fruit can be removed except under ’ the direction of the inspector. The a above extracts from the Bill under (l notice will convey to the reader some l idea of the very wide and questionable powers to be given to Government ? officers. It is well known that the present administration has been re--1( sponsible for the appointment of certain followers to positions which they were totally unfitted for, and it is i, apparent that if such a course is followed under the present Bill (that is, 6 providing it is made an Act of Parlia- ( ment) some very awkward complica--1 tions may ensue. For instance, an inspector or agent might visit an . orchard where a disease of some kind had obtained a slight hold, and which i, could be easily remedied, but, either through ignorance or a mistaken idea, 5 > steps might be taken which would cause serious loss to the owner, who l ’ would have no redress. '* THE LATE MR G. S. COOPER, i, In the death of Mr George Sisson Cooper New Zealand has lost, if not e the oldest, one of the oldest of its ’ settlers, and its most respected and ..esteemed public officer. Few, if any colonists now surviving can date his arrival on these shores from 1841, but - at that distant year Mr Cooper obtained his first commission in the service of the Government of this colony. His appointment was signed by , Captain Hobson, New Zealand’s first 1 Governor, and from that date when he entered upon his duties as junior clerk in the office of the Colonial . Secretary to his retirement in 1892, he was always in harness. To be : brief, the following is the list of the appointments he filled, which, however inadequately, will at least show i that his promotions were due to merit - and brilliant service Junior clerk, ! *B4l ; Aide-de-camp to Governor \ Fitzroy, 1844; Private Secretary to . Captain (now Sir George) Grey, B 1^46; Native Officer and Inspector of ; Polioe at Taranaki, 1852; Distriot Comd missioner, Native Department, for Wai--3 rarapa and Hawke’s Bay, ] 854; Resident k Magistrate, at Waipukurau, 1861 ; J Under Secretary for "Native Affairs, , 1868; Under Secretary for Defence, 1869 ; Under Secretary for the Colony, , 1870, which he held till 1892. It will 1 thus be seen that from the birth of the ■ colony, through all its struggles for its very existence with the natives, J through all the changes political and , social that fifty years bring to a young country, the late Mr Cooper was not t only behind the scenes, but aided in i “ pulling the wires,” and thus shaping i the destiny of New Zealand. He was, in fact, from 1868 till 1891, the trusted and confident l al adviser of every suci cessive Premier; and it became a saying that “nothing could be done , without George Cooper.” During that period the Under Seoretary was not only regarded as a permanent officer, unaffected by changes of Ministry, but as the chief executive officer » of the Government. And it is due to the memory of Mr Cooper that while wielding immense power he never used his influence either to the hurt of a fellow man, or to enhance his own fortune. He died, comparatively, a poor man, for if we are rightly informed, he had but his pension, a small one at that. It may well be believed that on the accession to power of the late Mr Ballance, an officer, such as Mr Cooper, the embodiment of official i knowledge, of official honor, and of official traditions, was a stumbling block. He stood in tbe way of revolution, of topsy-turvidom, of caddishness in high places. He was more also than this—he was a gentleman. And so before a year was completed of the new order of things under the so-called Liberal Government, Mr Cooper was sacrificed on the shrine of the “ spoils to the victors.” He was compulsorily retired with no more courtesy or consideration of his meritorious services than if he had been a junior clerk. It is a reproach to Mr Ballance that will never be forgotten, that he never knew how to act towards a public officer who had spent a life time in the service of the oolony, with the generosity and justice due to that servioe. Whether it was merely plebeian ignorance, or the policy dictated by the means by which power had been obtained, certain it is that the late Sir Dillos Bell was treated in an equally shameful manner by Mr Seddon when the late Agent-General returned to the colony full of honor the reward of legislative and political services. But none of these rewards came from the “ Liberal Ministry ” ! Fortunately, the best men in the colony expect nothing at the hands of Mr Seddon’s Government, and they never get anything, and of these was the late George Sisson Cooper whose death the colony mourns.