Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1939. HILL COUNTRY DETERIORATION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 January 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1939. HILL COUNTRY DETERIORATION

AN important and many-sided question was raised by a deputation representing the Farmers’ Union and the Sheepowners’ Federation which interviewed the Prime Minister and a number of his colleagues on Wednesday and asked, “in view of the deterioration of second and third class country which is steadily going out of production,” for “a complete, impartial and authoritative inquiry into the factors affecting the farmers’ ability to maintain this land in a productive state.”

It was urged by the members of the deputation, and recognised by Ministers, that this question affects the country as a whole. ’Allowing land which might be kept in use producing wool and other commodities to go out of production evidently must work out in great national loss. There may be some 'land which it is impracticable to maintain in production in any conditions likely to be established —-particularly areas subject to serious and continuing erosion. The only salvage measures feasible where land in this category is concerned, may be in the nature of afforestation by rough and economical methods. Operations of that kind may be well worth while in many instances, especially when beneficial results are to be expected on more or less adjacent and usable lands. . Most certainly, too, the fact that extensive areas of land in the Dominion have been devastated by being exposed to unchecked erosion should provide a compelling reason for doing everything that is possible, by the strict protection and conservation, of watershed forests 'and in other ways, to prevent an extension of similar damage.

A great part of the problem laid before Ministers on Wednesday relates Io arresting the progress of deterioration on lands that are not fatally exposed to erosion, but are capable of being maintained in good heart under approved farming methods. The maintenance in unimpaired productivity of much second and third class hill country in New Zealand raises an economic rather than a physical problem. Lands on which standing bush was felled and burnt derived in this way an added fertility which has since disappeared. It is by no means established, however, that deterioration of this type must be expected to continue indefinitely.

One of the Ministers interviewed on Wednesday is reported to have said that if land was producing year after year, some deterioration must take place irrespective of erosion. There are practical farmers of long experience, however, who hold that under normal conditions of good husbandry, with an avoidance of overstocking and other errors, there is a definite limit to the loss of fertility on land enriched years ago by the burning of the bush —a point being reached at which the productivity of well-managed land is at least maintained. In countries of older development there are hill pastures which have been kept in good heart for centuries, under simple but well-regulated farming methods.

There is an important distinction to be drawn between land which has been ruined, or is in process of being ruined, by unchecked erosion, and land which is quite capable of maintaining its productivity provided it is farmed as it ought to be. The economic problem—the question of the power of the land to yield returns which will adequately balance costs — arises, however, even in the ease of lands which are not necessarily subject to continuing physical deterioration.

If the practical investigation asked for by Wednesday’s deputation is instituted, it will be necessary in the first instance to distinguish between lands which have been laid open to devastation by the misguided destruction of protection forests and in other ways, and those that have escaped this misfortune. It was presumably with lands that are quite capable of beingworked in the right economic conditions —with a fair balance of costs and returns —that the deputation was chiefly concerned and the contention advanced that working costs have become unduly high in relation to returns is, from a national standpoint, well worth going into.

While the returns obtainable from the working of second and third class land are determined largely by the play of world markets, and are beyond New Zealand control, the costs of operating these lands are in some measure open to control. Many factors of course enter into these costs —not only the outlay entailed in stocking and working land, but internal and oversea transport charges, the efficiency of cargo-handling in ports, the prices of various materials and services, notably agency and financial services, and local and national taxation.

The whole question of the balance of costs and returns in the reasonably efficient working of second and third class land is well worth examining in detail. It is fairly clear that the progressive abandonment of any considerable part of these lands must mean a serious economic loss to Ihc Dominion. Since the attitude of Ministers towards the representations made to them on Wednesday was definitely sympathetic and the question is to be brought before Cabinet, it may be anticipated that the inquiry asked for will be instituted.

An investigation which would bring all the facts into clearer perspective is very necessary. One outstanding detail which rather obviously calls for consideration is that of the weight of taxation, and particularly of graduated taxation, imposed on hill country lands. The graduated tax is not so much a revenue tax as a penal impost; intended to enforce the subdivision of land, or at least its more intensive working. Applied to hill country, which can only be maintained in productivity by being stocked comparatively lightly and is most effectively worked in large areas, necessarily running to a considerable valuation, a tax of this kind may not only impose hardship on individuals, but may run definitely counter to the national interest. An investigation of the costs of working hill country which did not pay full heed to the item of taxation would be .somewhat pointless.