BREAKING IN LAND.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 41, 28 November 1938, Page 5

BREAKING IN LAND.

MORE PRODUCTION THE OBJECT. USE OF MODERN MAC'HIXERY. ' i ' 'I-"-"' (Per Press Associatio’../ WESTPORT,, November 27. Vast machinery will he brought to the Boiler district in February for the purpose of demonstrating the clearing and draining of at present, unproductive land, said the Hon. P. C. Webb (Minister of Mines), when lie addressed a. record gathering of farmers at a meeting of the Buller Fanners’ Union on Saturday night. Mr Webb was'Welcomed by Mr Hateley, president of the union.

Mr Webb emphasised the importance of the application of machinery in the clearing and draining of land. Something had to be done at once to increase production throughout New Zealand, and before production could he increased extra areas of ground had to be cleared and brought to a suitable point of productivity. There were thousands of acres of good land that only required working, land that was near to railways and highways. The old methors of clearing the land were too slow. The 30 years that he had spent on the West Coast had convinced him that it took at least three generations to break the land in. The average farmer with old methods found ii a difficult task to keep the growth of blackberries and undergrowth in control, and while doing that lie had no time for more productive work. The modern child who saw other people still battling for an existence from the land lost heart and he in turn left the land and caught employment elsewhere. This state of affairs was entirely wrong. The time when machinery should be used had arrived. By this modern method it would be possible to clean, stump and plough four acres of ground a day.

Swept Away Like Straws. Mr Webb said that he had witnessed work that can he done with machinery during a recent tour he had made of the Gisborne district. Every particle of modern science was expressed in that drilling work, and there was no hard manual labour attached to the job. It was all done by the giant plant. He had seen elsewhere a bulldozer cleaning up land of stumps. Pushing 20-year-old treys out of the wav as if they were but .straws. New Zealand was one of the finest countries in the world and with the Government’s present .scheme for developing "West Coast lands, lands which formerly lay' water-logged and covered with debris, would be brought to production. During the course of his tour he had interviewed the representative* of the buildei's' of these mammoth machines who was himself a professor in a Californian university and a New Zealand representative of the firm. The Government could get the plant, but first 'an inspection must he made of the district in order to see if the land could be cleared economically.

Demonstration in February. ATr Webb said be had conferred with the Prime Minister and the Hon. R. Semple and discussed the plans. In February a demonstration would be given in the Duller district on three different types of soil. \\ lion demonstration took place it would be a red letter day for the Buller district and indeed for the whole of New Zealand. Tt would be the first time that such a demonstration bad been made in Australia or New Zealand and possibly in the whole of the British Empire. It was hoped that the Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers, members of Parliament and representatives of all bodies throughout New Zealand would be present in tlie Puller district at the demonstration. The Government bad distinct hopes that it could get machinery that would clear up the. Buller and other parts of New Zealand in a minimum of time and which under the old methods might take 100 vears.