WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 10 June 1919, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

NOXIOUS WEEDS

NEGLIGENCE AND WEEDS,

(From Our Special Correspondent.) . , Wellington, June fi. The Parliamentary Committee, which is now .moving from place to place in search of information concerning the industries of the Dominion, has a wide order of reference, and is turning it to good account. At its sitting here yesterday the chairman of the committee drew from Dr. Reakes, the Director of Agriculture, the astounding admission that the Noxious Weeds Act, of which a great deal has been heard throughout the country lately, while providing that blackberries shall be cut back a chain from the road does not require owners to take any further steps to free their properties from the pest. The existing legislation was practically useless, the Director said, and no real progress could be made with the eradication of the scourge till the law was amended.

SOMEONE SHOULD HANG.

A practical farmer, commenting upon this surprising state of affairs, which must have been known to the officers of the Department of Agriculture for years past, declared this morning that someone should be hung in connection with the matter. In the Taranaki district there are 4000 or 5000 acres of land entirely covered with blackberry, and many more thousands of acres greatly reduced in value by ihe presence of the pest. Then in Wairarapa, Manawatu, and Wanganui vast areas are being threatened by the scourge, and in the Hutt Valley the Government is allowing a great waste of blackberry to remain on State lands and distribute the seeds all over the surrounding country. All hope of entirely eradicating the pest must now be abandoned, but it can be in a measure controlled, and this ought to be the work of the immediate future.

LABOR MEMBERS.

In an open letter addressed to Mr. H. Holland, the Labor member for Grey, Mr. W. A. Veiteh, the Labor member for Wanganui. makes a very spirited retort to the criticism the "Social Democrat" leader has lately heaped upon him. "You succeeded in your underground scheme at Wanganui, while on the surface you claimed to have been workin™ harmoniously with Parliament," Mr. Veitch writes, "and when I mildly say you are 'temperamentally impossible,' you complain, with the convenient imagination you have, that I am attacking you." Proceeding, the member for Wanganui deals with Mr. Holland's opposition to military services, showing that, while it was ill-advised and hopeless from the first, it retarded, and in some cases actually impaired measures intended for the welfare of the soldiers and their dependents.

ELECTORAL REFORM.

An effort is being made here to stimulate public interest in electoral reform. The prospect of anything being done in this direction by the Government itself before the general election is extremely remote. Mr. Massey has admitted that reform is necessary, and Sir Joseph Ward has included proportional representation in his party platform, but even if the leaders, or either of them, were prepared to discuss the question during the approaching session Parliament, would not have the patience to listen to them. Tho promoters of the present movement hope, however, that the public may be awakened to the need for a change from the present clumsy method of election, and that the impending campaign will ail'ord opportunities for educating aspirilng politicians on the subject. They an* even dreaming of seeing next year a House of Representatives in sympathy with their views.