The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, JULY 5, 1916. THE CALIFORNIAN THISTLE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 156, 5 July 1916, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, JULY 5, 1916. THE CALIFORNIAN THISTLE.

(With which is incorporated The Tai hape Post and Waimarino News.)

Whilst the House was in committee u few evenings ago on the vote in the estimates for the Agricultural Department. our member, Mr. E. W. Smith, brought under the notice of the Minister for Agriculture the very unsatisfactory position in which farmers in tins district were placed in connection with Californian thistle. He pointed out that in the' earlier stages farmers were intensely afraid of it, and incurred a Ju-avy toll while endeavoring to extirpate it, or, at least, keep it in check. Mr. Smith pointed out that despite very heavy expenditure in some instances, by a thorough system of cutting, the thistle spread and soon got out of control. Farmers conferred ; meeting after meeting was held and notes were compared, but all experience tended in the one direction, that cutting had no destructive effect upon it. Instances came to light in which an out of the way patch had escaped the cutting,, and in every such case it was"apparent that the thistle had made less headway than where cut. Finally a large and representative meeting resolved to approach the Government and ask that a commission be set up to take evidence ■exhaustively and report. The Government did as - requested, and the commission was appointed; it visted most of the affected areas, and many days were spent in taking evidence, but there the* matter was cut short, and it looked like another of the Massey drifts, as, for some, unaccountable reason, the report was never made public, and the settlors in whose interest the commission was sot up were left as before. The evidence given by several practical farmers was overwhelmingly in favor of suspending; the Noxious Weeds Act in so far as it related to Californian thistle. Although the. commission’s report was never allowed to reach the public, it was fully understood that the Department would no longer attempt

to enforce the Act; and this understanding- was strengthened by the subsequent. inaction of the Department. For two years the thistle was allowed to grow unchecked and uncut, when the Department, with surprising suddenness, selected some half-a-dozen settlers out of several hundreds who had taken no cutting steps to check the weed, for prosecution, and they were taken before the Magistrate here, and, after lengthy evidence, were fined. The presiding Magistrate evidently recognised the absurdity and the persecuting nature of the charge, for he imposed only the most nominal of fines. This, however, brought about another big conference of farmers, at. which it was resolved to send a deputation to Wellington to interview the Premier, ivho was also Minister of Agriculture at the time, with a view to having the thistle removed from the Jist of noxious weeds, or, failing that, that it should be placed in the third schedule, which meant that local r bodies would be given control, with the right to say whether or not it should be cut. Mr. Massey gave quite an encouraging reply, and yet absolutely nothing was done; the Massey drift set’in, and the matter has drifted from bad to worse. As it ever was, it is still impossible to kill the thistle by the most stringent system of cutting that the most callous of Governments dare make compulsory. Besides, it is proved beyond doubt that the Californian thistle is not only harmless, but, on the contrary, it is good stock fodder, having helped many farmers to winter their stock" when grass was scarce owing to climatic severity. We say that to compel farmers to waste thousands of pounds iti trying to destroy a plant that has proved of great value in our roughest country would bo nothingshort of sheer lunacy. It is indeed questionable whether the present aspect of the law could be enforced, for the collective farming industry would not submit to it. And although we respect the laws of our country to that "extreme which is the duty of every citizen, we cannot retrain from thinking that farmers -would be quite justified iu refusing to comply with the stupid provisions of a law enacted in ignorance. We do not deny that on rich, warm, river flats, in districts where long summers prevail and early and late frosts are not the rule, the thistle is somewhat of a menace, because w'o have no evidence either one way or the other. We do know that in this*class of’■country it’'earn hotbe exterminated by* cutting, mid ' it ; would be neither-advantageous nor profitable to the farmer or tlie country'to ‘ enforce the-compulsory : provisions of j the. Act as ait now stands; We contend | that it ift. most unjust that the Act should rerun in a standing menace to j settlers.gp very sword of Damocles,

i-oaJy r t9 r /.ull at the wish of some oftieioujj »ur 5 ..ignorant. person. • Farmers are entitled to haye. dheir .minds put at case on {his matter,- ami; wo believe that with a tkqvoughlfy practical. farmer; \vho has a knowledge of, rough country farming, as Minister of Agriculture, justice will result. After Mr. Smith had brought, the subject -under the notice of the Hon. Mr. MacDonald, the present Minister of Agriculture, the Minister intimated that, although he had only recently taken the portfolio of Agriculture, he, as a practical farmer, quite agreed that there, were districts in which it would bo utterly impossible to cope with Californian thistle, and. he, personalV: felt that no good would result from having farmers brought before a court. He realised that it was difficult to make a hard ami fast rule, hut he undertook to give the matter his earliest possible consideration, with a view of arriving at a satisfactory solution. In bringing the question before the Minister while the vote tor Agriculture was under consideration our member rendered a signal service to hi s district. It should have been obvious that to enforce the Act ui its most extreme sense was altogether impossible in the mountains of the Waimarino electorate, and we now have hopes that the practical knowledge of the Minister will cause him to follow a course that will make further persecution of our farming community impossible.

In another column Mr. Fred <l. I oU ( A publicly thanks the matron and staff of the Taihape Hospital for the hinc ness and attention shown him while in that institution. At the cud of the month housewives who trade on the credit plan will be receiving unwelcome accounts. Wh) not decide right now to live on a cash basis at Bennett's. Sec their advertisement in this issue of the Times. Wcathep forecast: Winds easterly moderate to strong, and backing by east to north and freshening. Increasing haze and cloudiness for change. Barometer has a falling tendency shortly". At a meeting of the Taihapc Distinct Patriotic Committee on Friday evening it was decided, on the motion of Mr. .Tames, seconded by Mr. Oldham, that donors to the Belgian I and be notified of the recent cable news in regard to the unsatisfactory state of affairs in re Belgian relief, with n view to their altering their donation to another fund. The Turkish troops in Asia Minor were for a long time kept, in ignorance of the fate of Marshal von dot Coltz. For three weeks after his murder orders continued to be issued in his name under a false signature. :