The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. SATURDAY, NOV. 12, 1887.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2394, 12 November 1887, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE .

SATURDAY , NOV. 12, 1887.

Kquiil ami exact justice to ail men, 01 whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political.

It would appear likely that the codliu moth post will be legislated for during the present session of Parliament. Mr J. B. Whyte has brought the matter before the House, and, in reply to a question, elicited from the Colonial Secretary the statement that it would be necessary to make the legislation for this pest compulsory and general. Thanks to the chapter of accidents, that .Minister had the matter brought under his very nose last season in the shape of a box of apples; which, on being opened, proved to be a box of little else than codliu moth larva; and rottenness. In no more opportune or forcible manner could the necessity for legislation have been enforced upon the senatorial mind. The House has plainly expressed its disinclination to enter this session upon any work of legislation which is not absolutely of immediate necessity. Tin: codliu moth question is, however, most undoubtedly one of (hose matters which not only needs immediate attention, but legislation of as full and comprehensive a nature, as possible, ami we earnestly trust, that of the alternatives before the House, the one, a short amendment of the existing Art of 1881, the other, the framing of a new Act altogether, on the lines of the Bill suggested by a committee of the Waikato Horticultural Society, the latter will be the course taken. As regards time and trouble (he work of the Legislature in this matter has been vastly simplified by the carefully revised Bill prepared by the committee after consultation with other kindred associations, a copy of which was published in our supplement of Saturday last, and forwarded by post to every member of tin; Legislature in Wellington. That Bill was the result of several meetings and much deliberation on the part of the. committee, which consisted of a dozen or men; practical Waikato orchardists, three of whom were professional nurserymen, and was drafted by a legal gentleman, himself a practical fruit-grower of large experience. It Is no mule memorandum of the opinions expressed hap-lmzard at an ordinary public meeting, but a well digested Bill devised and discussed by practical and experienced men, dealing .. ith a subject with the

details Ilf wliii.Ti tll'-v were inili viiluiillv i•<>ii\ i■ cs; 111 L anil lartelv iuicstcil, ;»!i(I is fniimql in u maimer which will coiuiucml itsnlf to lli(‘ legal mind of till! House .is heipe YV.ukahle ill qvorv detail. 'lO amend (lie Ad, proposed as t iii- alternative con so of action, would iheret’nre save little time and I roidile to nicndiers, and would li" open to two serious objections. It would 1 >",t patch up the dill'cally with a, far trom satisfact.ory suhsiitute for the present most crude and unworkable Act, that ot 188 1 ; and it. is to he feared, that an amendment having heeu once made to this Act. it might he (1 i'lieull in anol her session to eel the I/'gislature to amiin take the mailer in hand.

With the work of framing the Bill ready to their hand, and with no claim upon the public purse for the expense of working the Aet when passed- for the draft Bill provides that the expenses .shall he met hy a small tax or. all trees over two years old, not exceeding one farthing per tree in clean, and one half-penny per tree in unclean districts -it is not unreasonable to ask that the matter shall he dealt with fully in the present session. By doing so the Act, would come into operation in time to enforce some of the most necessary preventive operations during the present fruit season —such as the bandaging of trees for the destruction of the chrysalis of the moth, ike., besides chocking the spread of the pest from infected into at present eloan districts. As to the Act of 188-1, that as it stands is a dead letter. It has never been and never will bo brought into force in any district, because its provisions, while they would harass the fruitgrowers of that particular district, would bo wholly neutralised for good by the fact that the districts on its boundaries, not coming under the provisions of the Act, might ho loft as nurseries for the growth and spread of the pest. To bo effective the Codliu Moth Act must be of the same compulsory character as the Sheep Aet. Had that Act boon of a permissive nature, less drastic in its provisions than it is, one whit more tender of the impatience of the public to submit to legislative interference in their individual concerns for the common benefit, scab would bo found at the present time in every district of the colony, and the sheep fanners would bo ruined. As great an evil threatens the growing and important industry of fruit-growing, mid it must be met with the same incisive legislative enactments. The same necessity existed in California and other American states, and the “Californian State Bruit Pest Law,” which has now been in force for two years, and a copy of which has been forwarded to Air Whyte at Wellington, is even more stringent than that now proposed for New Zealand. Disinfection of trees, fruit, boxes, of everything indeed connected with fruit in unclean districts, is made compulsory under heavy lines extending iu every case from a minimum penalty of 25 dollars to a maximum of 100 dollars.