THE CODLIN MOTH.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2920, 9 June 1888, Page 3

THE CODLIN MOTH.

The following illustration of the mages of the Codlin Moth is given by IfP'Jhristchurch Press in a leading article upon the necessity of legislation of so me kind in repressing the

evil;— Auckland was quite free from

the pest for years after large orchards had been established; but one infected shipment from Sydney landing under favorable conditions for the development of tho insect,started the mischief. Now it is rampant there and in Nelson,

Napies, and Waikato. The Nelson people, popularly supposed to be re-

velling in an unlimited supply of every kind of fruit, are now driven to import ago the moth had never been heard of. In an evil hour infected fruit from Auckland was consigned to a shopkeeper, The larva) in soma of this fruit hatched out and the insect spread with terrible rapidity among the numerous orchards between Hamilton and Cambridge. Nor did the mischief stop there. The diseased frJjLdropping half ripe to the ground ViWi drug in the market. Settlers resident miles away, finding that these apples could be purchased for a mere nothing, loaded up their traps with them whenever they visited the district, and, ignorant of the mischief they were doing, carried the apples home to their children, and in a short time spread the pest among their own orchards, and wholesale throughout the length and breadth of the Waikato. Now there is scarcely an orchard free from the infliction, and we have it 011 excellent authority that the orchard-

ists there are cutting down their trees in all directions, utterly beaten in |jg|ieir divided and inadequate efforts to *Eliecl; the coarse of the destroying ■ millions, In the district we refer to the trees were just coining into profitable bearing, and scores of industrious men who had gone in largely for fruit

culture now find that their labour for years has been wasted, their small capital spent, and their apple trees, which were regarded as an unfailing

free of income, worse than useless ambrances to the ground. All this mischief might have been avoided by proper legislation, involving some taxation, and by a combined and sustained effort to stamp out the evil at the outset. It is impossible to overstate the danger.