BAG WORT AND ITS EVILS.

Kawhia Settler and Raglan Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 196, 10 February 1905, Page 2

BAG WORT AND ITS EVILS.

(to ran editor.) - Sis,—lt you will permit mo I should like, through the medium of your valuable paper, to draw the attention ol Sfollow-settlars and others in terse to the rapid spread of ragwort at Te Bau-a-moa. This noxious weed is literally taking possession, and at snob an alarming rate that one fails to see where it will stop. The seriousness ot tbs matter doss not so much lie in the foot that some 200 acres are simply smothered with tbs pest, bat in what will inevitably accrue from that fact, namely, that the seeds will rise up in their millions and float like thistledown bom by the winds north, south, east and west, to take root in the congenial seed beds offered in every new barn. It will not respect the undulations of the country, and if it be allowed to spread on to our more broken and onploughable lands it is not too much to say that eradication will be hopeless; have we not evidence to prove this in , the last report issued by the Govern- ' ment on the question ? At a coot of £2OOO it has been estimated the ragwort can be got under at Te Bau-a-moa, and a petition is now being signed requesting aid from the Government. This request is a most legitimate one, as it is asserted that the weed was introduced in the grass seed supplied to the settlers under Government control. This petition should to my mind be signed by as all, as it is obvious we are each and all directly or indirectly most seriously interested. Should the settlers who are being overcome by the curse fail to receive help they will be forced to surrender their holdings. To the settlement of Te Bau-a-moa the spread of the ragwort means ruination. The place has an enterprising community that has spent between £2OOO and £BOOO in erecting a remarkably fine butter fee tory, and the opinion (emanating from no alarmist) is growing, that should the pest fail to be checked at once that within two years their factory will have to dose its doors. The ‘settlers at Te Bau-a-moa are striving hard against this enemy to their progress and prosperity, but are being beaten. They are only our advance gourd, and before long it will be our turn to fight, perhaps to be beaten, if wo do not watch our interests and at once hrip to rid our lands of source which is so grave a menace to our future welfare. Wo have a district with such natural advantages that its prosperity seems assured, out what it we fail to do our duty in protecting it from such evils.—Yours, etc., PEBCY W. BELL.