ENCROACHMENT BY SAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 774, 21 September 1929, Page 9

ENCROACHMENT BY SAND

KAIPARA RIVER FARMS MENACED REMEDIAL MEASURES Proclamation of a sand-drift area, . P r ® ven t further encroachment of **l?, west coast, carried by tbe Kaipara River during- floods, on to the low-lying farm-land between Waimauku and Helensville, was recommended to the Waitemata County Council yesterday. The proposal was advanced by a deputation of Woodhill settlers. Hundreds of tons of sand in suspension were carried into the Kaipara River A he smaller steams from the foot of the sandhills, Mr. T. Loughnan told the council. Vegetation in the streams had served to check the sand in former years, he said, but since the draining of the creeks the drift was carried into the river. Filter beds, by fencing off small areas of the streams, had been made by several settlers thus causing the sand to be dropped A suggestion that the council should take over the area through which the streams flowed and proclaim it a sand-drift area, under the provisions of the Sand-drift Act, 1908, was advocated by Mr. A. Trousdale. Suitable filter beds could then be constructed, he said. He pointed out that 400 acres of ITobson Farm, Dtd., was enclosed to prevent the sand-drift into the river, and a handful of settlers had to bear the rates and taxes on this property. Warning the council the settlers were becoming tired of this burden, he declared that some day the settlers intended cutting away the beds, causing great damage, which the council would have to meet. After hearing other members of the deputation, Mr. S. Phillips said that it would be averse to proclaim a sanddrift area, in view of the Forestry Department’s investigations of the advisability of extensive planting on the coastal sand dunes. Afforestation, he said, would prevent sand encroachment and consolidate the land. The opinion had recently been expressed by an expert that the sand country could be brought into productivity for sheep farming. The council decided to ask the Forestry Department the nature of its proposals.