ARE THISTLES A NUISANCE ?

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 134, 1 September 1870, Page 7

ARE THISTLES A NUISANCE ?

In the House of Representatives, ou July 28, Mr. Cracroft Wilson brought up the report of the Public Petitions Committee on the petition of thirteen inhabitants of the province of Canterbury, praying for the repeal of the Canterbury Thistle Ordinance, 1866. Mr. Rolleston moved that the report be printed. In the debate which ensued on this motion, Mr. Stafford said that he believed it was absolutely impossible to prevent the spread of thistles, and that a great deal of money was spent in doing only what would be like a drop in the ocean. He had, perhaps, peculiar opinions on the subject, but he believed that thistles were really no injury to a country, l>ut were a great improvement to second and third rate land. So much so, that a friend of his had, in reclaiming third-rute land, actually sowed thistles on it as fertilisers, and valuablfi grasses were induced to grow when the thistles died out, which they did in a short time where the ground was not ploughed. Mr. Kcrr, in referring to this statement, said that he knew that at Panniure, in the province of Auckland, the thistles had taken complete possession of some very rich land, so much so that nothing else could grow where they were. Mr. Fitzherbert, after stating that the extirpation of thistles was, in his opinion, absolutely impricticable in a country like New Zealand, abounding in waste land, and whose cultivated farms adjoined millions of acres owned by the natives, said he thought the cutting clown of thistles on the waste lauds was a great mistake in inference to pastoral lands. He could state from experience that during certain portions of the year the thistle was an excellent article of food — the period when there was a lack of rain. At that time sheep fed with great advantage upon the flower of the thistle, and it would, in his opinion, be a disadvantage if the thistles were destroyed upon the waste lands. In addition to that, the thistle, by boring down into the soil with its tap root, loosened it and rendered it thereby much more capable of improvement. Where these immense beds of thistles grew, they gradually gave way, and in time the place became covered with a thick growth of grass. He had paid considerable attention to this question, and in the eradication of thistles he had seen great errors committed. Where, then, was the remedy for the complaints made 1 In England, there were cases where farmers brought actions against their neighbours who allowed thistles to grow, to the detriment of the farm land in the vicinity, and damages were recoverable at common law, where neglect had been proved ; but to have an inspector, and penalties laid down, would be, to his mind, a mistake, and would prove, to some extent, an act of oppression. Mr. Rolleston's motion was eventually adopted. This is one side of the question. The following, from a Hobart Town paper, gives the other : — A meeting held at Clarence, was attended by a number of practical farmers, men who were largely interested in the adoption of such measures as would probably tend to the removal from their land of that plant which was baffling all their efforts and ingenuity to get rid of. The eradication of the thistle to them was a matter not to be trifled with, for their land was, through its growth, becoming impover'shed ; their crops of wheat, corn, tfec, gradually growing less ; and their prospects, as a natural consequence, getting gloomy in the extreme. It was no imaginary grievance ; no mero party squabble, which was immaterial to any one but those who were foolish enough to allow themselves to be mixed up with it ; but was, as Councillor Maum observed at the meeting referred to, "a nuisance and a plague, that unless means were discovered to stay it, would prove the ruin, not merely of the Municipality of Clarence, but of the entire colony of Tasmania." Instances were given by those present at the meeting of the deterioration in the value of property in the district through the ravages of the thistle. In one case it was stated that a farm, which a few years ago was worth £40 or £50 per annum, had recently to be altogether abandoned by its owner, through the crops being rendered useless after mowing, in consequence of the prevalence of the thistle. Another instance of the decrease in the value of property traceable to the inability of farmers to eradicate this nuisance, was that of a farm seven or eight years ago worth £1000, but which would not now realise £100.

A countryman, who had never paid more than 20c. to see an exhibition, went to a New York theatre to see "The Forty Thieves." The ticketseller charged him 75c. for a ticket. Passing the pasteboard back, he quietly remarked, " Keep it mister ; I don't want to see the other thirty-nine." and out he marched.

A curious sect, calling themselves "Jehovah's Band," have arisen in New Jersey. Their peculiar form of worship, a local paper states, developes itself by blowing, whistling, shouting, jumping, wrestling, falling to the floor, and rolling over and kicking. Both men and women engage in the exercises. New members are baptised at midnight in the village mill-pond. On the Sabbath they bold a continuous service, taking recess for meals only.