HIGH-COUNTRY RUNS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 201, 3 June 1940, Page 7

HIGH-COUNTRY RUNS.

QUESTION OF RESTORATION. DEPARTMENT’S EXPERIMENTS, (Per Press Association). WELLINGTON, June 2. Valuable information on the restoration of high-country runs is expected to be gained by the Minister for Lands (the Hon. F. Langstone) from the experiments which the Lands Department is carrying out op the Molesworth Station—the largest run in New Zealand. In an interview Mr Langstone said that high-country men with long experience told him that the right policy was being pursued. \

Molesworth was closed down when the property reverted to the Crown some years ago, and the Crown also bought 10,000 acres of freehold between the boundaries of the station. Between 600 and 700 heifer cattle were now running on the station, from which the Minister said more than 70,000 rabbits had been cleared in three months in an effort to renew pastures depleted by overstocking and rabbits and inefficient farming in the past. Experiments had been carried out with crested wheat grass.

“Excepting in the valleys, the carrying capacity will not be very great,” said Mr Langstone, “and we will have to build it up according to the ability of the run to carry stock.”

The prospects of Molesworth being made available again for private settlement were remote, the Minister indicated. “For any private person to take up Molesworth fairly large capital for stocking and other requirements would bo needed,” he said, “and I don’t think anybody is keen to take it up. The former mortgagees lost a lot of money operating the run, and highcountry farming needs men with special knowledge and special ability.” At present the Department was trying to retrieve the pastures and ascertain what could be done by careful management. One of the experiments was to prevent by hill coverage pasture the soil erosion which took place and damaged the country lower down. Blenheim had had several sad experiences of flooding through erosion in the back country.