SAND DESTROYS FARMS

Chronicle (Levin), 16 April 1947, Page 8

SAND DESTROYS FARMS

Menace Seen In Inland March of Dunes Tkousands. of acres of fertile farmlancis in t'ne extreme lower portions of tlqe Manawatu basin are facing extinetion as a result of a .-greatly accelerated inlana inareli -f of saud ■ dunes aiong the vvest qoast, aceordihg to inlQrmation giyen to . the Manawatu Oatchment Board at a meetipg in Palmerston North yesterday. Although the Works Department has beeii carrying out in the area preventive woi'k such . as tree p'lantings and sand dune stabilisation, its eft'orts have been. confm. ed solely to Grown Lands or lands which the Crowh propQses to acquire, and the benetit has been very limited. The subject arose when a letter was received from Mr. E. Barling, of ■ Himatangi Bea.eh, drawing attention to the fact that reelamation work in the area had been provided for ih the Minister of Works' ten year programme for the district. He asked'.whether the Catchment Board could do any thing to have the work expedited because, he said, the position was rapidly worsening and the rnoving sand would shortly become a grave menace, threatening even the main eoast road. Mr. S. W. Barber (Moutoa) said remedial measures would be about 20 years too late. Alrecady thousands of acres of goocl farmland had been inundated by the sand, and unless something was done ih" the near fnture to bait the encroachment, many hundreds of acres more wo.ulcl be despoiled. Farmers in the patli of the 'sand were very greatly concerned about the matter, he said. The District Engineer of the Works Department, Wellington (Mr. T. A. Johnston), said provision had been made in the Govcrntnent's ten-year programme for the reclamatioh and stahilisation of 50,000 acres. He thought the Catchment Board would do we]l to get in behind the Govcrnment's scheme and give whatever support it could. The opinion that the problem +o be faeed was so^ast that no good purpose would be served by "tinkei'ing" with itr was cxpressed by Mr. C. J. Hamblyn (Department of Agriculture), It neccled to be tackled on a, big seale, on a properly planned basis. It callecl for something bigger than work on a £ for £ basis, but he thought subsiclised planting of trees, marram grass and lupin by private land owners would have a beneficial effect in the ffieantime. Mr. ff. L. Ewan (Lands and Survey Department) said his department had been interested in Ihe problem for many years past. It had tackled a similar position at Tangimoana, ahd he would like board members to sce what had been dohe by way of tree planting there where the soil was not appreciably better than at Himatangi. The problem was not confined to Himatangi, said Mr. E. Bruee Levy, Director of the Grasslands Division of . the Department of Researph. fp PieKhkhilki^ hf the south to Patea in the north. "If we are going to follow a policy of straightening and decpening our rivers, thus expediting the washing of our hill country soil into the sea, we must encourage sedimentation of the ocean foreshore," he said. "I am convinced that there are tremendous potentialities, not only in reclaiming the land alreacjy covered by sand, but also in pushing the so'a back several hundreds, of yards as it brings up deposits of soil." He mentioiiecl as a means of achieving this encl, the construction of pallisades along the foreshore. An example of what could be done was to be seen at Waitarere Beach. A suggestion was made that the board sliould make a strong eas; to the Manawatu Regional Planning Council for the reclamation work at Himatangi to be given priority in the ten-year pro gramme of works. ■ It was finally dceided to., ap proaeh the Soil Conservation _and Rivers Controk Council with a view to having the £ for £ subsidj on hill -'country tree planting extended to eover such areas as that ■it Himatangi,