And we did , and kicked the buggas out , all over the world :wink:
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And we did , and kicked the buggas out , all over the world :wink:
But you have to balance all that with the weeds, rabbits and foxes:D
Foxes ? is that a nickname for the possums that they infested my homeland with ?
A very popular animal at one time - they used to be followed by lots of dogs accompanied by groupies in red coats on horseback.:D
Talking from absolute ignorance on NZ wildlife - native or imported - Jock. Definitely would have failed 8th grade there.:B
Saw a programme on how NZ had had a terrible problem with African Boxthorn. Apparently it had been popular with farmers as it grew quickly into hedges and was impenetrable without heavy machinery.
Cheers,
Jim
Pretty insular here - most of us forget Tasmania.
I think the programme was a BBC2 production called Round the World in Eighty Gardens narrated by Monty Don. I can 't be certain that that is where the boxthorn came up though. The following might help you place Monty Don anyway:
While travelling around New Zealand Monty followed the Forgotten World Highway. This highly memorable driving journey wriggles it way over four mountain saddles, through an eerie one-way tunnel and along a sinuour river gorge.
Originally built on colonial bridle paths it was formed in the late 19th century. History is one of the reasons to choose this route, but scenery is another big highlight.
By the way, African Boxthorn is a noxious weed here but when turned looks very similar to European box.
Cheers,
Jim
So that BBC2 character based his program of New Zealand on a back country road that runs for a few miles through a very small hill region of one small province on one island off the coast of the mainland of this country ?
He is not too bright eh :D
I know that African boxthorn is a noxious weed in Australia . I have known that for many years .
I have eradicated a fair amount of it , in Taranaki (NZ) :U
Interesting indeed. I vividly remember having a polite but pointed row about this with the person pretending to teach me English when I arrived here in 1978. I would accept "so" and "yet" as one word parenthetic clauses, that is with a comma before and one after, never a comma before any of the words mentioned if it is not the beginning or the end of a parenthetic clause. To the best of my knowledge, however, English usage tolerates a comma before the "and" introducing the last element of a list. For me, the examples above are plainly wrong. If the correlation is meant to convey causation, "and" should be replaced with "therefore", otherwise the comma before it should be removed.
So, what's the verdict?
I tend to punctuate English as I'd speak it.....if a pause is in order then so too is an apostrophe.