RECLAIMING SAND DUNES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2772, 16 August 1924, Page 2

RECLAIMING SAND DUNES.

*. — GOV E R NAI EN T AFFORES TA T lON SO TIE A lE. WORK ON Tins COAST. A few yrnrs back the Forestry Department acquired an area of about 2,500 acres of sandy land on ;ht> MeNi’lv'.e Estate at Oroua Downs, with a view to traa-forming it into a .ami reclamation area: and from the remarks made to a reporter yesterday (says the Times) t>\ Mr II A. Gouilie, Cunservatoi’ of Forests. Rotorua Region, it may lie judged that the Department's activities there, had been attended with a large measure of success ;in fact he described them as extremely gratifying. Air Gondii-, together with Captain AfcTntosh Ellis (Director of Forestry) and Mr F. Phillips Turner (Secretary for Forestry) paid a visit to this area on Thursday in order to inspect the work and to note i lie progress that had been made since the commencement of operations. Tn order to proceed with work, Mr Gondii' stated Department had i'oujiil it necessary to select an area uf about. 2(5 acres at the Tangemoana lend of the reclamation region which it was hoped to form into a tree-planting ground, so that the nursery portion of tlie work could he extensively developed. About half of this land would actually be planted in a short time, it being the intention of the authorities to raise half a million trees there this spring in order that they may lie ready for transplantation in the winter ,of .1 ‘>2(l. Next year another 100,000 i roes would ho lined out for planting; in Ihe winter. “This year," he continued, “80,000 frees were planted out in areas which have been reclaimed by (be pinnting of marram grass, which appears to lease been successfully I rented. "As a whole, this reclamation work has been attended with the most gratifying results,"”and since the commencement uf the scheme the major portion of the land has been e.overed with marram or some other herbaceous* growth. The main problems which have to he faced in the near future lie in the fixation and building up of permanent fore dunes.

••Practically the whole of the reclamation area is subject at times i . inundation though this is not- expected to present any seiious diffirulties for a survey has; recently been made of the place, and plans arc now being prepared for a drainage system, which will relieve if of all water lying about.” It is an interesting fact that aleng fhe West Coast from Paekakariki up to some of the towns in Tarn.naki there are thousands of acres of land similar in capacity to that at Orotia Dow us, upd upon which reclamation work of this nature would prove invaluable in future years.