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2. WEEDS During our tour of New Zealand sheep-farms we were impressed by the need for taking adequate steps to cope with, weeds. It is distressing to find in the midst of good farmable country great areas of land where production has been almost completely strangled by gorse, broom, brier, blackberry, and other weeds. There are some areas (for example, swamp areas and very poor land) where weeds have grown and where we realize it is not economic to remove them until there is some use for the land. We refer, however, to the very considerable areas of potentially good land on which weeds have become established. In no part of New Zealand was this more distressing to us than on Banks Peninsula, where the soils are fertile and excellent pastures can be maintained even without top-dressing. Yet areas of the splendid pastures of the peninsula have disappeared under tracts of gorse, and it appears to us that comparatively little effort was being made by the local authorities to effect any improvements. We do not wish to suggest that this was the only area in New Zealand where we saw such instances. We saw plenty of gorse on good farming land in the Wairarapa and in the Taranaki and Wanganui districts as well as in many other parts of both Islands. It is obvious that the strongest measures will have to be taken to cope with noxious weeds. A committee was set up in 1945 to study this problem. The members of this committee were : Mr. E. J. Fawcett, Director-General of Agriculture (Chairman). Mr. H. R. Denize, representing the Live-stock Division of the Department of Agriculture (Deputy Chairman). Mr. J. W. Woodcock, representing the Fields Division of the Department of Agriculture. Mr. W. D. Armit, representing the Department of Lands and Survey. Mr. A. F. Blackburn, representing the Department of Maori Affairs. Mr. A. J. Healy, representing the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Messrs. W. A. Lee and H. C. B. Withell, representing the New Zealand Counties' Association. Mr. Lloyd Hammond, representing the New Zealand Farmers' Union. Mr. R. McGillivray, representing the Canterbury Progress League. The Committee reported as follows :—\ In the course of the deliberations of the Committee the present and past measures for the control of weeds, together with statutory powers available for this purpose, were thoroughly reviewed. At its final meeting on the 21st August, 1946, at which all members were present with the exception of Mr. McGillivray, Canterbury Progress League, the Committee came to the unanimous conclusion that effective control of the weed problem in the Dominion could only be achieved, in the main, by local authorities undertaking the administration of the statutory powers in respect of all lands (including Crown and Native) and by the Government providing substantial financial assistance by way of subsidy on moneys collected by means of rates for weed-destruction or actually expended in that connection by a local authority. To give effect to the proposal of local authority control, the Committee recommends that: — (1) The local authority administering the Noxious Weeds Act or a Committee set up within the local body, together with a person appointed by the Minister, shall constitute a Committee which will give consideration and recommend to the appropriate Ward Committee set up by the Counties' Association, the amount required by such local authority by way of subsidy on moneys expended in any financial year.