NEW PESTS.

Waipa Post, Volume XXI, Issue 1210, 25 February 1922, Page 4

NEW PESTS.

THE principle laid down by the Agricultural Department in dealing with the incipient tick pest in New Zealand is that of wide proclaimed areas, that may be narrowed as the ground is cleared of ticks, and migration of stock beyond the more thickly infested of the two areas set forth is prohibited. The Department is starting in the wrong place. Ticks may be dis-

tributed by many other means than on cattle. A farmer who walks through long tick-infested grass in the early morning in Auckland province, and alights in Taranaki that evening from the train, is as likely as not to leave ticks in the pastures there, and it is very likely that the eradication of ticks, especially in the warmer northern climes, will prove no easier to the

Department than has that of blackberry, thistle, gorse, ragwort, fire blight, rabbits, and other unwelcome immigrants which have either been brought here by misguided enthusiasts or as stowaways. Excepting fern and tea-tree no country in the world is so free of native weeds; yet to-day, imported weeds and pests are a serious menace to the Dominion's prosperity. So general, indeed, is the prevalence of noxious weeds in some districts that

inspectors, not knowing whom to first proceed against, have adopted a laissez faire policy. While the general enforcement of expenditure in eradication would he most unwelcome to the farmers at the present time, it is the only solution of the problem, for as long as the ibirds and winds disseminate the seeds the presence of a single plant will perpetuate the mischief. Well stocked with inimical weeds, parasites, and rabbits as New Zealand is, new species are constantly being added, and to cope with this aspect of the situation the most rigid and microscopical examination of all imports should be carried out by the State. It is here, rather than among the widely-scattered pests in the field, that the Department might have met with success had its methods been adequate. We assume that there is no

system of State microscopical examiaation of imported vehicles of pests, because some hardwood poles erected in this district are riddled with a new species of borer. The worm of the

beetle drills a hole some three times the diameter of the well-known house borer, and the beetles-are now hatching out quite nicely. We have one on a pin as we write, a sturdy black fellow with every indication of the survival of his species. It is stated that New Zealand timbers are as immune from the attacks of the Australian borer as the hardwoods are from the New Zealand variety, 'but the undetected importation shows either torpidity of the departmental imagination

or a startling apathy. In view of the general advocacy of the planting of hardwoods by the Department it is reasonable to suppose it is ignorant of the admission of the Australian borer. The whole problem of pests is one that needs more attention than that provided by the perfunctory State

methods. The tick areas so impressively proclaimed should never have been allowed to exceed the Auckland wharf. We know of at least one ardent amateur microscopist whose researches in coccids led to discoveries which earned him a Government subsidy to prosecute his studies in Nelson, and the special training of young menwho are naturally enthusiastic in microscopy need not necessarily entail a heavy expenditure on the State. It could very well be commenced by inexpensive assistance in our second-

ary school laboratories, and with a more careful inspection of seeds, fodder, timbers, and stock by persons

capable of detecting not only the parasites, but also their infiitely minute eggs, a check could at least be put upon fresh importations of pests, and by nipping the danger at its only possible source render an increase in the already formidable, if ineffective, army of inspectors unnecessary.