FLOOD PROBLEMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 111, 13 May 1938, Page 9

FLOOD PROBLEMS.

EFFECT OF SILTING.

RESTORING PASTURES. HAWKE'S BAT PLANS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) HASTINGS, Thursday. The authority of the Treasury Department will be sought by the Hawke'a Bay flood relief committee for the immediate purchase of fencing materials. These will be used to construct fences round the newlysown areas which, were buried deep in silt in the Anzac Day floods.

This decision was reached at a meeting of the committee to-day, over which the instructor to the Fields Division of the Department of Agriculture, Mr. J. W. Palmer, presided. The object of the fences is to stop stock from straying over newly-sown areas.

Interviewed this evening, the fields superintendent to the Department of Agriculture, Mr. J. A. Hamblyn, said that there were 1700 to 1800 acres of land silted in the Esk Valley. There was also other land silted on the East Coast which would bring the total area to about 3000 acres.

Discussing the possibility of the grass gaining a hold before the winter, Mr. Hamblyn said that something had to be done, or all the silt would be blowing about next summer, and there would be no vegetation in the ruined areas. It was very late in the year to expect that the grass would come away, but at least an attempt would have to be made. It was certain that some sort of growth would take place, and this would at least help to consolidate the ground against further winter floods.

Regarding the quality and fertility of the silt that had been left in the Esk Valley, Mr. Hamblyn said that it was coarse, but once the pasture obtained a hold, the content would rapidly improve. The quality of the soil in those areas which had been silted would not be as good aa formerly.