SWAMP DRAINAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 198, 23 August 1928, Page 13

SWAMP DRAINAGE.

TALL FESCUE MENACE. MINISTER CAN'T SEE DAYLIGHT. PKOBLEM TO BK SOLVED. (I!> THcjcriiiih. — Pnrlinni<'ntiir.v Importer.) A\ ELLINGTON, Wednesday. '11 i- not olten that I admit being IxMti'ii mi que-.lions affecting the land, I' 1" 1 niu-t admit that here is a problem which I can't see daylight," ► luted the .Minister of Lands in the lii.u-c of l!e|iie>entativis this afternoon when the subject of tall fescue on the JI hi iraki I 'In ins was under discussion. "How e\ it. i will not say that this proI'lein ot tall fescue is nut capable of tome .»ohit ion." Mr. A. M. Samuel (Ohinemuri) pointed (Mil that tall fescue had a stranglehold on the lower reaches of the Hauraki J'lains. II it spread to the upper ends of the fertile plains, then good-bye to one of the most prosperous districts in New Zealand. Much of this country now lost to sight below a deep sea of tall fescue was I ion.'.;ht at a fairly high cost to the State, and a yood deal of money had been expended upon it, said Mr. A. Harris (\\ a i tenia ta I. who recently visited the llauraki Plains. Land was covered by tall tYsi up without any apparent hope o! redemption. Did the Minister feel justified in offering any further sections lor settlement on this tall fescue belt? Mr. Harris bed found that some of these "lands for settlement'' were immersed from boundary to boundary under a growth of the weed. Was it desirable that -ettiers should be allowed to go on such land, in face of past failures? "The area has been very difficult and troublesome," said the Minister, in reply. Particularly in this district had it been a problem, though in some districts tall fescue could be dealt with successfully. On more than one occasion he had visited the localities on the Hauraki Plains where tall fescue was a real problem, and he had conferred with his officers as to the best means of tackling the proposition. As vet he could not see daylight. "However, there are always men who lire willing to take up such land with their eyes open," said Mr. McLeod. "It is not a question of their being 'taken in.' J hey know what they are doing, and they are the best type of pioneering settler. Although this land has not actually been withdrawn, my officers understand that it is not open for settlement to men who have to be financed on to it. Instructions have been given that if men who have looked over the area, and know what they are about, rare to take it on, then every endeavour is to be made to come to terms with them. They are to be given the land free of rent and free of interest for a considerable number of years. The Department would not allow an ignorant man to go on to such land. Men with a bit of capital and the nccessarv horse-1 power, could do more with such land than the Department itself. I would be the last man to sav, 'That land is shut up and finished with.'

"This tall fescue trouble is only a phase. It is not a permanent feature of swamp lands settlement," continued the Minister. "It is undqiibtedly a fact that people settling on swamp lands in New Zealand have l>eon able to set more money, and get it more rapidly, than swamp lands settlers in any other country. There lias been an inclination to rush swamp settlement through and to reclaim land at too fast a rate. That is the surest way to lose money of which I know. Tho land must have time —it cannot be a success in a few years, or even n feneration." Mr. McLeod said the Hauraki Plains swamp drainage scheme was a monument of success. The settlers thereon were outstanding men—men who were reaping the fruits of patient labours. In an area that only a few years ago was a howling wilderness of flax and water 3001b of buttei fat per acre had been yielded last season.