The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1888 TASMANIA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2828, 21 February 1888, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1888 TASMANIA.

Tasmania is, or ought to be, the landi of the blessed. It is a healthy, wellwatered country, with the mildest of climates, a fertile soil, picturesque scenery, and a cotitented population, Tasmania never possessed a Vogel, never crushed itself with a big railway boom, ami has no native difficulty, the last of its aborigines having passed in her checks a dozen years ago. Tasmania is noted for its fertile fields and its fruitful gardens, it is a land flowing with milk and honey, and one would almost fancy that it offers that happy home to the wistful eyo of the immigrant, that New Zealand was once supposed to present. But, alas! the Tasmanianof to-day, richly endowed as he is by Nature's bounteous hand, is not altogether in a state of chronic bliss: tliero is a thorn in his cushion. Au intelligent New Zealander, the Secretary of the Ohristchurch Pastoral Association, who has recently made a tour of the Island, has informed a special reporter of the Lyttelton Times that he found in this Australian Eden two ills that Colonial flesh is heir to, the Codlin Moth and tbo Californian Thistle, The thistle has become such a pest that it has to be suppressed by acts of Parliament and by Inspectors. In the Northern part of the Island, hundreds of formers, who for a ge ier-! ation have made an easy living hy i growing wheat and potatoes, now make an uneasy one cutting down I thistles. The other enemy—the I Codlin Moth—is said to be a greater I plague than the Californian Thistle, \ in some instances tho yield of apples having been reduced to a tenth of the normal crop, by this pest. Settlers are, however, fighting both the Thistle and the moth, and in a few years time they will probably have conquered them, and will again load busy lives, cultivating broad areas of wheat and potatoes for tho Sydney market, and growing enormous crops of fruit for export in a state of jam to unfortunate countries like New Zealand which are incapable of producing those little luxuries. Tasmania oan afford plagues like the Codlin moth and the Californian thistle. The farmers of Van Dieman's Laud are not heavily mortgaged, and their improvements in very many instances were completed twenty or thirty years ago, but we in New Zealand cannot prudently run similar risks. The rabbit difficulty which at one time could have been suppressed at a cost of a few hundred pounds but which has subsequently lost us a million of money, ought to toach us to beware of plagues and not let them make headway upon us. In New Zealand the Codlin Moth "is becoming a menace to fruit growers, and we can only hope that the example of Tasmania will prove a timely war. ning to us, If we do not watch intrusive and prolific insects'like the Codlin moth, and the Hessian fly, a time may come when the Colony will not bo worth living in.

A great deal lias been done to advocate lower timber freight rates on the Wairarapa railway, but so far without result, and we have good puop to 'think that there is not the

slightest chance of any. reduction - being made, It has been said that : the only people who would benefit by reduced rates would be the Wellington timber merchants, and that local sawmillers, with the exception of those who have Wellington agencies -who. are iii fact their own timber merchants' —would derive no advantage. There, is certainly something in this, inas- j much as the timber merchants would no. doubt exact from aawimllers a reduction on the price of timber.corresponding to the-saving in freight, or else paying their own freight they would obtain the saving direct. Thus, it is said that Wellington builders, who many of them are not in a position to demand any allowance, and Wairarapa sawinillors, except those who are their own agents, would not gain anything and that the Railway department would carry the same quantity of timber—for. it is authoritatively stated that the traffic is not expected to increase with a lower rate—for less money, all to benefit Wellington limber merchants. Now bad there been no export this view might be correct, but there have been in the past large shipments. of Wairarapa timber made from Wellington, and it is on this that the reduced railway freightwouldbeabenefittosawrnillerß, to the district, and to Wellington shipping interests, and would lead, there is no doubt, to moiv timber being exported. The timber which is shipped may certainly be consigned in only one. or two names, but that by no means makes it a certainty that the mills who are so indicated are the only ones shipping, for there may be advantages or reasons for millers to . ship under one name, and no doubt this is done. On the whole, we thinls ' there are grounds for the very fullest and most careful consideration being given to this important question, and the matter in all its bearings anc aspects shoulclbe carefully considered,