THE GODLIN MOW PEST.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3085, 23 April 1892, Page 2

THE GODLIN MOW PEST.

Thb Waikato Horticultural Society have recently issued circulars to the fruit-growers and orchardists of the district, requesting d'-t.ulod information regarding the extent of the damage sustained in orchards through the codlin moth, the means tiken for suppressing the post, and asking for an expression of opinion, as to legislative measures being adopted to deal with the nuisance. The subject is a most important one to the whole district. The fruit industry, which should be one of the most profitable in Waikato, has of Ints years fallen away to almost nothing, owing to the wholesale destruction of fruit by the codlin moth. We hope that those people to whom these circulars have been sent will not fail t> supply the society with the information di-sired. A meeting of members will shortly be convened to consider the whole matter, and it is highly desirable to have full particulars to plane before them. It will no doubt be within the recollection of many residents in tliis district that a somewhat similar attempt was made by the Society some three years ago to secure legislative measures dealing with this matter. Ihis proposal met with strong opposition in certiin quarters, and the attempt was unhappily frustrated. This, however, should not deter people from again agitating in the direction indicated. The experience of the last threeyearsbasbeenmjfh'cient to convince everyone open to conviction that the proposal which the Society made in the first instance wan the correct one to deal with the post. Had the Bill which was then approved of by the society been placed upon the Statutn Book, we venture to say that the fruit industry in this colony would now be in a very different position. The pest in its rapid distribution over the whole colony which under existing circumstances is only a question of a year or two, will not only render the whole of our apple and pear crops practically unsaleable but will, wor.it of all, be an effectual bar to any extension of an industry which considering the advantages we enjoy in the matter of seasons outrht, in the near future, to have ranked amongst our foremost and most agreeable means of livelihoood in the colony. We do not see any utility in the proposition made at a late meeting of fruitgrowers at Otnhiihu, when it was suggested that the Government should offer a substantial prize of £5,000 to any person who should succeed in keeping his orchard frde from the pest for three years. The specific then obtained or the plan of operations when mude public might be too costly or troublosome for the ordinary run of orchardists, to securo the benofits to be derived from it and in any case there would be nothing to enforce its use. Wβ hear some objections raised to legislation, one looke for a natural enemy to the moth to make its appearance in the ordinary course of nature and another suggests the keeping of pigs and poultry in the orchards to eat the infected fruit as its falls. Thi* is very well for those who choose ta adopt such means, but what is urgently needed is the power to enforce compliance with necessary measures whatever they may be. In our opinion there is nnthing for it but legislation. The fruitgrowers in Amerioa and Tasmania with much longer experiences than our.i have found it necessary to resort to it and those engaged in the same industry in this colony cannot go far wrong in following in their footsteps.