SAND DRIFT MENACE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1985, 3 June 1919, Page 3

SAND DRIFT MENACE.

LETTER FROM MR. FIELD, M.P

In connection with the efforts being made by the local Chamber of Commerce in urging the Government to take steps to deal with the sand drift menace along this coast, the following letter has been received from Mr W. H. Field, M.P., in reply to the Chamber’s communication asking for his co-operation: — “I was glad to receive your letter inviting my sympathy in the direction of combating the sand drift evil on the sea coast from Paekakariki northwards, and planting useful trees on sandy land, which is now not only lying waste, but is in some eases spreading and covering valuable swamps. “I can promise you my heady cooperation in the matter. 1 need hardly remind you that this is a subject which is not only not new to me, but to which I have been devoting my attention for fully twenty years, and to a large extent unaided. I am the owner of" about 21 miles of sea frontage at Wa%anae, and when I took up the land several hundred acres' of it consisted of moving sand. I have succeeded, at; considerable expense, in covering it all with the aid of marram grass and inpin, and have now, in many places where previously the sand was drifting, an increasing supply of rough feed in the form of eoxfoot, paspalnm and prairie grass. Furthermore, I am told by Mr Frederick Easton, of Foxton, that'cattle will do well on lupin if it is cut down and allowed to wither. In this way be feeds a quantity of cattle through the winter on bis seaside properly near Foxton. This is a fact well worth noting, and I am following his.examplG on my Waikanae property this winter, For something like twenty years, both inside Parliament and out, I have been begging Government after Government to acquire and deal with large areas of sand and swamp country along the Manawatn and Rangitikei coasts, but my voice has, up to the present, been.literally that of one crying in (ho wilderness. By adopting this policy a large volume of surplus, labour could have been usefully and profitably absorbed. My suggestion was (hat the sand drift should be subjected to judicious planting of marram grass and lupin, and afterwards planted with pimis radiata (usually called insignis), and the swamps should be cleared of useless vegetation ami vacant areas planted in flax. In some of the sheltered wet land, too, poplars, which are, of course, very fast growing, could also have been established. It has been ascertained that both pimis radiata and poplar furnish excellent timber for but■;,r tev-boxes, cheese crates, and probahly also for tallow casks. I have proved conclusively, as have others, that the pimis radiata stands up againsf the heaviest gales and grows fast, and thrives on our sandy land. It would doubtless he wise to protect these trees by planting a bell of pimis pineastcr (usually called maritama) along the actual coast line. Had my advice been followed, we should have now almost ready for cutting increasing supplies of pine timber for the purposes above mentioned to take the place of our fast disappearing white, pine. Furthermore, large areas of flax would have been available, and the royalties last year, about £2 per ton for green leaf, would have gone a long way towards covering the total outlay. Practically nothing, however, has yet been done, and I welcome the activity displayed by the Foxton Chamber of Commci’ce, and all others who arc in sympathy with it, in this great national work, “I trust that in the near future the Government may be induced to take the matter in hand energetically. The result I am sure, he for the great benefit of the Dominion as a whole.”