COMMERCIAL HORTICULTURE (MARCH 2005)
After reading the report on Peter Cave’s Bank’s Lecture in the February
2005 edition in Commercial Horticulture (in which he argued for the rights of
New Zealanders to import new plants - Ed), I find it very difficult to
understand how Peter is able to retain his normal polite demeanor when
discussing the useless free-loading gits at MAF who have so deviously empowered
themselves with the authority to stifle the life out of our industry and
jeopardise the economic future of all New Zealanders.
The New Zealand Department of Agriculture, the forerunner of MAF, was set up
with the vision of past generations of hard- working New Zealanders to
facilitate the development of Agriculture and Horticulture in New Zealand.
The scurrilous method by which this once great government agency has been
misappropriated by an unholy alliance of free- loading lefties and academics to
be degraded into a police organisation with total control of the primary
industries it was created to foster and develop is neither excusable or
acceptable.
The selection and development of crops from nature is not only a fundamental
human right, it is the very foundation stone of human civilization.
Every tree, plant, animal, fungi and fish that has ever been domesticated was
the fruitful vision of an individual who first recognised its potential to
provide food, fibre, fuel, medication, building materials, dyes and oils, to
sustain himself and his family. These domesticated plants and animals today
collectively provide for the sustenance of all humanity.
“The mixed bag of free-loading lefties, and the pack of scrawny wenches in Wellington who currently monopolise the decision-making processes have set New Zealand firmly on the pathway to economic ruin and future cultural and political turmoil.”
MAF has in effect closed down the future development of horticulture,
agriculture, silviculture and aquaculture, in New Zealand by denying people
access to new and novel germ plasm. The future of these great primary industries
now rests entirely on the barren and unproductive desks of a few ecologically
illiterate bureaucrats, none of whom could make a productive living out in the
real world they so assiduously seek to control. Any man who allows his future to
rest on the barren desk of a bureaucrat has no future at all.
The situation is now far worse than most people imagine. In addition to not
being able to source new tree germ plasm from overseas, as a land owner I am now
liable for prosecution under the open-ended Resource Management Act for planting
a grove of trees on my own land without a consent in the first instance.
Once the trees reach a certain height I am liable for prosecution under the
council’s tree protection ordinances for pruning and thinning my grove of
trees to their correct spacing.
Once the trees reach maturity I am liable for prosecution under both the council’s
tree protection ordinances and the Resource Management Act for harvesting my
trees for their intended purpose.
After harvesting the trees and sawing them into timber I am liable for
prosecution under the council’s building code for building my house with
unauthorised timber.
Using the off-cuts and mill slabs for fuel wood to cook my food and heat my
house leaves me liable for prosecution under the regional council’s Clean Air
Act.
In addition to my problems with the law in the woodlot and on the domestic
front, my plans to produce all my own domestic and transportation fuel
requirements have run foul of a number of laws: firstly the plants I intend
converting into methane have been declared noxious weeds by some smug, hide
bound little eco-fascist. The manufacture and storage of methane fuel leaves me
open for prosecution under the hazardous goods act.
The mixed bag of free-loading lefties, and the pack of scrawny wenches in
Wellington who currently monopolise the decision-making processes have set New
Zealand firmly on the pathway to economic ruin and future cultural and political
turmoil.
First the politicians took away the Upper House of Parliament, then they
introduced gerrymandered party lists of parliamentary candidates who cannot be
democratically removed from office and finally they took away our constitutional
rights of appeal to the Privy Council.
“When they outlaw growing trees, only outlaws will grow them. When they outlaw the harvesting of trees, only outlaws will harvest them. When they outlaw the introduction and development of new trees, only outlaws will introduce and develop new trees.”
Democracy has been properly defined as government of the people by the people
for the people. Modern day New Zealand has degenerated into a bureaucratic
dictatorship where we have government by the bureaucracy for the perpetuation of
the bureaucracy.
A nation where bureaucrats are given the unchallengeable right to police laws
created by themselves is no democracy.
When they outlaw growing trees, only outlaws will grow them. When they outlaw
the harvesting of trees, only outlaws will harvest them. When they outlaw the
introduction and development of new trees, only outlaws will introduce and
develop new trees. When they outlaw burning firewood, only outlaws will burn
firewood.
The sterile minds at MAF have seen it as their duty to empower themselves with
the authority to garrotte the life out of agriculture, horticulture,
silviculture and aquaculture. As they are quite incapable of serving the current
and future needs of these industries they should be totally disbanded and
replaced with a trustworthy non-policing organisation solely dedicated to the
ongoing development of our four primary industries.
Graeme C. Platt.
NZ Botanical Research Institute
Editor
In the article covering the late flowering of Pohutukawa trees published in the
February 2005 addition of Commercial Horticulture it was erroneously reported
that I am a plant breeder. This is not the case, I am a plant selector not a
plant breeder. Of the many plants I first introduced into cultivation most were
selected directly from their natural habitat out in nature. A small number were
selected out of parks and gardens.
The only two plants I ever bred were Phormium “Platts Black” and a hybrid
fuchsia, a cross between Fuchsia procumbens and Fuchsia excorticata “purpurea”.
A number of novel plants were also selected from amongst the millions of
seedlings germinated at Platts Nursery from seed mostly collected out in the
natural world. Graeme C. Platt.