CORRESPONDENCE ON HOW TO GET £2,000,000 FOR NOTHING.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 December 1922, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE

ON HOW TO GET £2,000,000 FOR NOTHING.

(To the Editor). j Sir.—An article appeared in your columns so ill« time ago, ill which the forestry expert recommended setting aside the whole of the tJrowera Country as a source of fertility for the Dangitikei swamp, or plain as it is now called. The idea seemed so ridiculous that I can’t help commenting on it ,a,ml especially as we have been told tho same nonsense about Westland. T think that it is high time, that some oiio tried to expose this greatest calamity that lias been put on this country, and Westland in particular. Now. I resided for 15 years in the Bay of Plenty and have an intimate knowledge of' the whole surrounding district. Evidently the old fable of preservation of moisture is played out, as them is always too much rain in. the back country. If the expert in question had got a. shovel and dug a. hole in iinv part of the swamp, he would have found that alt the top part for several feet down is composed of decayed vegetable matter created right ' on the spot, the accumulation of thou- ; sonds of years growth. The bottom part is pumice sand and grit, the overflow of Dangitikei rivei in ages past. But again, tins Dangitikei river does not drain the Erewera except for | a. small branch stream towards the top ] end, the Whakataiie and the Waimana rivers does so. Practically the whole length of he Dangitikei river runs through about the poorest land in New Zealand, the pumeiestone plains of Kaingaron. So much for the soil fertility plea. But no one will object to Kaingaron being set aside for that purpose for all time. The Irewern is good grass land when cleared. It is to be hoped that the heavy hand of stagnation will fall more lightly nu the nativo owners than it has in nthei : places.

! As to Westland the greater part of ! V cstland's forest is oil the moraine formation, which is practically as poor to-day as when first created. No farmer would be stupid enough to try to grow anv crop on it for human beings to eat, because it is tight and waterlogged. hut iOrest trees have the power *to penetrate the hardest soils. Consequently it will always remain in forest. The present growth which is by all appearance some thousands of years old, should he cut out. and a. new crop would come up of its own accord, provided it was not burnt. That forest is a crop ready to bn harvested. What would he thought of a farmer who let his crop stand to rot. Yet such is evidently the policy of the Forestry Department. The only use for fertility in Westland is on the alluvial fiats which have been made up from the snowy ranges where there is no forest. Why not a preservation of mineral, or better still, if it is a question of preservation of soil fertility, (a preservation of soil fertility department) with a. couplo of thousand inspectors to go] round and taka samples from various j parts of every farm, and send them oil to Wellington for analysis. Any farmer who depleted his soil below a certain standard of fertility, why simply land him in jail. The fact of the matter is there are men in New Zealand. I men who call themselves patriots, who would like the whole of the still undeveloped backbloeks reserved for scenery purposes, ignoring the human element and life’s labour of thousands of pioneering settlers who are able to look ii] w>n green fields and grazing stock where formally was wilderness and j jungle. Settlers do not go into the hack-blocks with thu sole idea that they are to lie isolated for all time, but with the hope that at some future day they will he in. touch with civilisation. alia tidy deadly isolation has j driven out several settlers from the south, even although tin 1 government has subsidized steamers to trade there yet. There is no need for any assistance, the resources are here, if they arc only legislatively applied, to bo a great profit to the country without any eventual cost whatever. There can he no material progress for Sou thorn Westland, unless the vast timber resources at present lying idle, are dealt with in a most liberal and comprehensive manner. Forestry royalties and conditions arc evidently meant to bar the industry. Conditions formerly 'prevailing were quite good enough for all concerned. South Westland’s greatest need, greater than the Otirn. tunnel, greater than the coninuation of the railway south from Doss, is a centrally situated deepwater harbour to deal with those vast anas. There is room for twenty mills to feed it. The harbour would pay for itself with the timber trade alone. It would give direct shipping to Australia or any part of this country on large bottoms. saving five to six shillings per 100 ft. in freight, railage and handling. Timber could he lowered 3s pen - ICO in New Zealand, and probably 5“ to Os in Australia. So, instead of ns before, she took £1.000,000 she could prohuhlv at the lower price with the dutv off take £2.000,000 worth. f do not Iwdievo that then will ever he any scarcity of timber in the world. The tendency of modern building is to eliminate wood a.s much as possible. Forests are esscntailly a. product of nature, kenp the axe. firostick, and plough out of it. and the whole world goes hack into forest. Ever since man first emerged from the eaves, the first problem that presented itself was to attack the primeval forest so as to live. And so it has been in this country and every other new country. tn any ease we would not <•< nipete with tint great timber producing countries of the world. The mild climate and broken nature of New Zealand is against it. The whole thing in a nutshell is: I have been to the city ol Auckland some six times altogether, every time there I saw ships unloading timber mostly Oregon pine, some of them very big ships. If you can not compete now that you are only dealing with native timber that it costs you nothing Lo grow, how in the name of common sense arc you to compete with plantation timber ! J If there had been anything in it private landowners would have been at it 30 years ago. If there is any further doubt about it, ask the nearest hank to advance money for that purpose and see how it fares. The sand blown desert of Jutland, or the sand-dunes of Holland are quite different. 'They have no undeveloped land in those countries. New Zealand can hold its own in grazing or dairying against the world, so why not stick to it and develop it to its fullest extent, by ridding the low-lying country of the timber which is only a useless eneumberanee to progress. One year’s cost to the country of the Forestry Department would probably he sufficient to make a. harbour .which in turn would bring in £2.000.000 a year to the country for 20 years ,and ho an asset to the district for ever after. Tim forest costs the country nothing, so I make this suggestion to the powers that lie, how to get £2,000.000 per year for nothing, or let the settlors of the south go hack to the oaves of their ancestors. J. C. CHHTSTIANSEN, Waiho, 25th. Nov., 1922.