DRIFT SAND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 836, 7 May 1910, Page 2

DRIFT SAND.

Which is the greater of the three following evils affecting land productiveness in this portion of the Mauawatu: Noxious weeds, rabbits or drift sand ? The Government has provided legislation more or less effective in checking the ravages of the first two, but nothing has so far been done to compel owners of land to check the onward march of the devastating drift sand. Therefore we unhesitatingly declare against drift sand. Within a mile or two of Foxton large areas of country are rendered absolutely useless, which, if systematically planted with lupin and marram grass would, in a few years, be transformed imo good second class grazing land. There are thousands of acres of Maori land in this district which needs attention, but nothing will be done by the leasees to prevent the spread of sand, as their leases do not carry compensation clauses. The Maoris are too indifferent to trouble about the question. The Government, therefore, should tackle the problem by passing legislation compelling owners to take measures to check drift sand.

The Philadelphia Ledger dealing with this subject says : “Shifting sand dunes are causing trouble on the borders of Lake Michigan. The dunes are formed by the onshore winds, which sweep the beach sand beyond the reach of the waves. The sand accumulates in low mounds about any obstructions, such as stones or bushes ; thus started, the dune is sufficient cause for its own growth. The wind keeps piling the sand up behind, the dune grows and the sand on its crest is blown over to the leeward side of the mount, so that the dunes gradually march inland. On the east side of Lake Michigan the dry winds have heaped up numbers of dunes, ranging in height up to two hundred feet. In Indiana the dunes have moved inland across a forested area, burying and killing trees, leaving the dead trunks as skeletons behind them in their march onward. A famous instance of dune migration is that of the Kurische Nehrung, a long sand bar off the coast oi Germany, where a dune ridge marched over a church, burying it for thirty years, at the end of which time it was gradually uncovered by the progress of the dune.”