Soil Conservation Subsidy

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31117, 21 July 1966, Page 14

Soil Conservation Subsidy

Sir,—Normally there is available tn fanners a subsidy of £2 for £3 on the total cost of materials, transport, and erection of fences on unploughable hill country, where such fencing will bring about changes in management to prevent soil erosion. However, since last October the soil conservation section of the Department of Agriculture. Christchurch, because of

shortage of staff, has been unable .to handle the applications. Apparently no additional staff have been appointed because the administration of this subsidy may be taken over by the North Canterbury Catchment Board, and negotiations are taking place concerning whether the Amuri, Cheviot, and Waipara Counties will be included in Catchment Board areas. Meanwhile farmers erecting fences eligible for the subsidy are losing hundreds of pounds. Could not staff be temporarily appointed to the soil conservation staff on the understanding that when the Catchment Boards ultimately extend their boundaries the staff could do the same work under the Catchment Board?—Yours, etc., HILL COUNTRY DEVELOPER.

July 14, 1966. [Mr A. R. Dingwall, fields superintendent of the Department of Agriculture, replies: “Temporary staff would have to be specially trained for subsidy approval purposes, and there could be no guarantee that the services of such staff would be retained by a local catchment board in the event of the board taking over the responsibility of an area serviced by such temporary staff. Moreover, and quite apart from whether or not agreement is reached to extend the board’s area, the question of employing additional official soil conservation staff, whether on a temnorary or permanent basis, is a matter of policy that can now only be determined by the newly created Water and Soil Division of the Ministry of Works, to which soil conservation staff, at present employed by the Department of Agriculture, is in the process of being transferred.”]