Untitled

Hokitika Guardian, 19 February 1926, Page 2

What is described as the most gigantic siij vr-power combine in the history „f the world is now being organised in tlie United States. More than loft elcctri--nl corporation---, with numerous suh-idiary and dependent t ompanies. are uniting into one vast- plant, through linar.cial onmcslnnonts. inter--1 -eking electorates amt .similar devices of the modern business world. They spread on the mirth from the watergenerated power plants of Niagara. Bellows Falls and the Maine bakes; southward, through the coal-produced power region of lYunst Ivamn. lo the cotton hells of the Carolina*; thence, westward and yo’.ithvnrd to the gulf port i:f Louisiana. Application for the Pest water power location from the Hookies to the I’acifi • Coast, has already been made bv the major corporations in tlv all-cmbra- ing group. Tt dominates water-power plants, operate, coal-power plants, ranging from the gigantic pou erboiises which supply Xew York and Boston to the obscure, “oia-lung" generating .stations which sent current- to remote villages and ham I '-Is. Omo this new combine gels Muscle Shoals and the proposed Great Falls water-power development, its network will spread unbroken throughout tli- Fast, tt would appear now to be only a formal nro'ccdlng to linkup the multitude of corporations into a single plant, whose wires would spread in a single line from Canada 111 tip. gulf, and at least as far west the .Mississippi. Presently they u ill spread along the I'm-ific Coast, from Ilnilis-i Columbia to Mexico. The control is "xercised through the General Fleetric Company, and the Fleet ric Bond and Share Company. In both corporations the Morgan inlluence is exercised. Tin-: loiir.li Seieu e Congress of the .Ye v Zealand Institute brought- lo-g-.-tlier in Dunedin over a hundred of the Dominion's mo-i learned scientists, ami a lew professors and other expert. I'mili Australia. The majority of the subjects thev had under disciis-

'imi have I•.wmi ton s* 1 1 <>I «1 s 1 i<* (o convey hitv meniiiir/ to 1 lit* average ciliv.on. hnt now anjl then tln-y have unvote! iili 'Afttiuo; to somethin*' clearly am! itmiie»li;ti'*!y jn*ctiral. Out* such

subject, v.a- tiie control and eradication oi the blackberry pest. The two principal speakers were Mr A. H. Cockayne and l)r R. .1. Tillynrd. Air Cockayne caused some surprise by tak-

ing up the attitude Dial, the .seriousness ( | the blackberry pest is much exaggerated, and dial it i-. not bv any means, as is generally held, our most, harmful noxious weed, lie holds that on plotighable land backbcrry is quite controlled by good farming methods. Where it thrives on unphiughabl,, land, the major portion of that land is ol iulerior quality. Among

the methods at present in vogue for coni rolling the nm the use of goats i.s at present giving the hast results, hut one difficulty about them is that they need high and secure fences to keep them in. I)r Tillynrd. of Ihe Cawthron Institute, dealt with the matter purely from the biological point ol view, and discussed the possibility of controlling the black berry liv Che introduction ill a natural insect enemy. He found great encouragement in the marked success being achieved in Queensland ,iu the control of the prickly pear which has become such a national menne 0 there. After long and exhaustive tests one insect -has keen found that preys most effectively on the prickly pear without harming any other plant. There arc other insets under observation that also promise good results, and altogether the latest information from thou' lighting the menace in Australia is that they are most hopeful of definitely mastering the pricky pear bv means of insects. Dr Tillynrd believes that there is at least an even chance of our mast..'ring the blackberry in a similar manner. and while he is abroad this year he is going to make

investigations in America and Europe a, Pi likely insets available. Doloro he can, however, put lii.s theories to a laboratory lest, let alone try them in the open country in New Zealand, he will have to cut his way through a great deal of red tape to obtain permission to import the insects.