PASPALUM.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16812, 2 June 1926, Page 3

PASPALUM.

THE GIFT TO DAIRYING. A SUGGESTED MEMORIAL. It is admitted that paspalum lias meant millions in hard cash to the North Coast (says tho Sydney Daily Telegraph). A suggestion is made that a memorial should be erected to the man who primarily was responsible for the introduction of this grass in our dairying districts. The proposal emanates from Mr Thomas Seccombe, who was horn in the Maitland district eishty years ago, but who has spent the past 58 years in the Ray of Plenty district. New Zealand, where he was one of the pioneers and leading spirits in a great drainage work, which reclaimed 100,000 acres of swamp land and converted it into one of the richest dairying and farming areas in the North Island. Mr Seccombe came over to Sydney for the Royal Show, and since has been visiting parts of the coastal districts with which, he was familiar as a young man. Debt to Edwin Seccombe. “I have been through mile after mile of the paspalum country on the Northern Rivers,” he said, “and one thought, above all others, has impressed itself upon my mind, and that is that this portion of Australia owes an everlasting debt of gratitude to one Edwin Seccombe, of Milton, South Coast, who was the man to plant and develop the first lot of paspalum seed, and also to plant it on one of the Northern Rivers. “So impressed am I that I am starting a subscription, limited to one shilling, and I appeal to all my fellow Australians who have benefited to .ioin in and erect a suitable monument to his memory. I undertake also to get some assistance from New Zealand, where a far less benefit has resulted though in parts where Englisti grasses would not hold paspalum is much appreciated. People north of Auckland admit that it has pul £5 an acre on large, areas there." Mr Seccombe said he was not asking or wishing to sec a very expensive monument erected, but something sufficient somewhere in the North Coast to show appreciation for the work and memory of a line settler. Conversation of Paspalum.

The greatest need here to-day, Mr Seccombe declared, was to make provision against droughts. lie left his native land over half a century ago, and settled in New Zealand, because of the losses here from recurring dry periods or drought. Tho farmers and stock-owners should wake up to this position and make a great and united effort to do the best possible to minimise the great losses it) stock and production that result from drought. lie had been surprised, he said, to sec the manner in which paspalum was allowed to waste in the summer and early autumn of a favourable season. In New Zealand the paspalum was cut for hay once or twice a year. This not only gave a lot of good fodder for conservation, but improved the pasture, and, when not done too late in the season, ensured better winter grazing. Despite more regular rainfall the dairying districts of the North Island of New Zealand would not be so prosperous as was the case but for the extensive provision made for the growing and conserving of fodder for tho herds and other stock. It was, in liis opinion, nothing short of wanton waste, the extent to which heavy growths of paspalum were allowed to deteriorate Hie pastures, instead of being converted into sound, sweet hay, as was done in New Zealand.