CODLIN MOTH.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1739, 19 May 1888, Page 3

CODLIN MOTH.

TO THE EDITOR. Bib,—ln year issue of the 17th inst., I notice that the Govenment have been com* polled to devise more stringent legislation on the subject of Oodlin moth in apple orchards. Am Ito understand that every owner of an apple, plum, or pear tree, in this enormously taxed country, from the poor, half-starved widow (who heppens to have a email section of land with a few apple treei m it) up through all the various stages of eooiety (?) till the Premier himself is reached, are to be taxed one farthing for having a clean orchard, and one halfpenny for a Oodlinmothy orchard, and that inch moneys are to go to pay a chief inspector and an army of ■nbdnspeotors ? Truly, it must be a joke. 1 expect the time is not far distant, when onr very bedrooms will be invaded by Government tax-gatherer#, and we shall be taxed handsomely for having our bedrooms comfortably and decently furnished. B at, Sir, whatever on earth are these inspectors going to do f Is it intended that they are to entef a, man’s garden, and strut about where they think fit, and prance round all your fruit trees, and trample your well formed beds all to pieces to ese if there is a thing called Oodlin moth on your trees ? Oh, my! I can imagine with what joy they would be ncfeived'in 90 oasee out of a hundred. Why, Sir, inch a tax ai the aforementioned, would to my mind be the most cruel, unjust, tyrannical, and uncalled for, ever imposed on the people of this country. Has not Sir Harry Atkinson been driving retrenchment home hard enougb, and driving people out of the country fast enough, but that he must try and worry more of ns ont of this land by passing such an iniquitous Bill ? It is vary wall for a few apple-growers near the chief centres of population, who have got the moth in their orchards to urge Government to take step! in the matter, bat 1 cannot for the life of me see why the whole country should be taxed for the misfortunes of a fractional portion of the whole of ui. Snob a fgx would yield more money than all the Bead Board rates of the country, and all to be epent on the salaries of an apple chief and his subordinates. Really the matter is too absurd to think of, in the light that it is placed before the public at present. Hoping that soma of your numerous readers may know more than Ido about the matter, and not be backward in speaking through your valuable paper bn this important subject,— I am yours, etc,, Wamxb G. Rutland, Andrswville.