SAND-DRIFT DEVASTATIONS.

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1459, 8 November 1881, Page 3

SAND-DRIFT DEVASTATIONS.

Their nature and effect upon the western sea-boaid of this district, more especially Raglaa and its neighborhood, as also the vegetation suitable for checking the same by fixing and binding the drifts.

During a recent visit to Raglan, writes a correspondent, special attention was called to the rapid enoroaohment made by Rand-drifts on lands adjoining the sea beach ; more especially those situated at the mouths of riveraand harbors, Raglan harbor furnishea a case in point. In a line with the direction of prevailing winds, a vast extent of pastoral country has be- > come thoroughly embedded, aDd as the encroachment has been and still is going on from year to yew, a great deal of

valuable land is rendered useless, and serious apprehensions entertained as to when and where the destruction may end. Further north we understand the damage is evon greater than about Raglan. At Waikato Heads the invasion extends a distance of four miles inland, with nothing but sand in sight, and, maybe, the tops of trees long since buried. Naturally enough, means for copiug with this evil are being anxiously inquired for, but judging from results, I should imagine the true specific has yet to be obtained. Mr William Powell, J.P., a resident of Raglan of many years standinsr, has given the subject some considerable attention, and to Mb shrewdness and observation, I am indebted for information relating to tbe progress of tho damage, as also various influences by which the pbenomenou has from time to time been visibly affected. In one of these, as a means for arresting the more rapid strides of the devastation, he appeared to place considerable reliance. It was that a running stream appeared to operate more or less in the direction of a checkmate. Evidence, however, was not wanting to show that at the best this could only be accepted as a partial remedy, and that an effectual cure must be sought for in some other way. lam fuither strengthened in that opinion by a passage which appears in a treatise on the reclamation of sand wastes lead before the Auckland Institute in 1573. The writer, Mr James Stewart, C.E.. who appears to have studied the subject in its healings on the W( st Coast of this island, 1 elates the following : — "A remarkable feature on the coast is that of blind gullies, two of winch are to be seen near the JManukau South Heads. The principal one must diain at least 800 acres, halt of it being heavy bush land, but its outlet is covered by a lull of sand 480 icetlngh, tlnough uhich the water filters to the sea." Again, in allusion to another ill 1 ft, the same authority relates that "if not ai rested, the Karp.ua river itself will become choked up." That the evil as it exists is a gigantic one there is no roo-vi to doubt, and what makes it oven more alarming is that of late years it is proved to be more agiessne than it was m former times. A pos&iblc remedy theiefore becomes the point ot importance we have got to consider. Experience has proved that neither tencc nor trees can be made effectual for arresting the drift. Obsctvatiou has shown that when a bi tish or other close fence is elected in the sand it certainly teems to have immediate effect : the force of the i\ind id checked near the surface, and the sand censes to be earned forward, and deposited within a few yards of it, but soon a ndge is foimed to windwaid, where it ceases to have onwaid motion and rising higher and higher, its leeward side towards the fence soon shows a face as steep as the material will admit of. The dnft still uses, and tho crest rolls over the .steep hide, continually approaching the fence, until at last it is binied. A toiest has tbe same effect and ultimate fate. Of what use then can be the planting of young tiees if fence and old bnoh are yioved to be of so little avail. Tho s.unu observation or experience has piovcd that if the drift can be anosted at its source, then all to lcewaul may be giadually woiked on and reclaimed. Mr T. Knk, F.LS. in an able icvicw published something like ten yeaid a<ro, remarks : "I am led to behe\ c that in all except perhaps a few paiticulai localities, the objcot sought may be ultimately obtained by commencing the woik ot icclamation at high water mark, mucc the added .■and except in the case of uioung sancllnll-> is chiefly derived tiom the space between the thlenniks. It theieforo kg can succeed m inciting tins at t ho extreme verge of high •uatei, the mass, will accumulate -,o slowly, owing to local eddies and coiist'l dis>pu sion, as in moM; ca^osto udmit of the giowth of aiboieal vegetation, forming a permanent barrier. "' A difficulty hcie suggests itself arising from the violence of some of our prevailing wiudß. On the West Coast of this island the bouth-we-t wind blows so haid that it would not prevent vegot ition fiom having the sand blown from under it uuless piotected in some way in the first instance from the fence of the gales. Tho same difficulty under sirnuar circumstances seems to have presented itself years ago in the western isles of Scotland, and there it was met and successfully overcome in this way: The glasses selected weie, when seeded and ripe, spun into hay lopes without threshing. These ropes weie pegged to the sand all over the area to be leelaimed, in chequered lines. The seed was thus enabled to germinate and take firm hold and soon the whole became a uniform mass of vegetation. A process of that kind with the necessary modifications to meet local circumstances might be tned with advantage. The next point of importance is the grasses possessing the requisite root-spreading pioperlies and at the same time striking moderately deep into and flourishing on nearly pure sand. Dr Buchanan in his Manual of the indigenous grasses of New Zealand at page 15 mentions the sjwufci hinntnb or, spiny rolling grass, as being a clans of vegetation suited to the purpose. It is described as a coarse, rambling, much-branched, rigid, spinous, silky or woolly perennial. Habitates near the sea on sand-hills or saline soils more inland. Flowers January — Februaiy. Clurns stout, knotted, creeping. Leaves — 1,-1^ inches loner. Coriaceous, lower sheaths shining, both sides of leaf silky or villous. It has no claim whatever as a food, plant for stock, and is only recommended as a sand-binder in fix'ng drift-sands when encroaching on valuable land. "For that purpose," says the Dr. "it deserves more attention than has hitherto been bestowed upon it. It is a plant of comparatively rapid growth, and with the aid of other indigenous plants, such as Desmoschcenm spiralis of similar habit, would give effectual aid in checking the inroads of winddriven sand, conditionally that the plants be carefully conserved from fire. JProra the ravages of this element alone, since the settlement of New Zealand may be described the increased spread of winddriven sand, and, under such inflictions, the indigenous plants are overlooked in re-clothing the sand dunes with vegetation; seed of exotic plants inferior for this purpose being often imported at considerable expense " The theory thus put forward by Dr Buchanan is the only feasible one I have met with in explanation of the rapid encroachments made by these drifts in recent years, as also the likely cause of this phenomenon which is doing so much to destroy pastoral and agricultural enterprise along the sea-board, and as such I recommend it to the careful consideration of your readers. The remark is likewise worthy of special note, that while this natural preventative is being "'neglected, seeds of inferior quality, at considerable expense, are being imported." This theory confirms a well-known principle in the hygienic science, which rules that nature invariably provides compensatories for its ills if we only seek them diligently and apply them carefully. This grass, we are further told, may be propagated by seed, as also by roots ; the seed ' may be collected in February, Maroh/and April, and that it ia distributed in -New Zealand commonly on the coasts every where. iMlfc is probable," 'adds the compiler of this treatise, ''that the trouble;* incurred in 1 , collecting the natiye seed compared with - the ease with which exotic 6eed > 'rri'ayv'bV procured ■by .-purchase 1 accounts to some considerable extent for the neglecij of Shjs, ( yfllqatye sw^'feiwteft '' ' ' > A »- i« *> * •