SOIL EROSION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 212, 8 September 1941, Page 5

SOIL EROSION

PROPOSED LAW

EXPERTS AND LAYMEN f (By J.C.) | At last there is a glimmer of hope < for the saving of New Zealand's soil in the bill that has just passed its ( second reading in the Hoiise. Thej< full details of the measure are notjj yet generally known, and the public.|j interested in the problem of con-i« serving the country's natural wealth,' will look for information on the)] questions which have been discusser'!■ for years upon years until the Gov-i ernment was compelled to take somej notice of the widely expressed views, of speakers and writers on the sub-i ject. The preliminary discursions in! Parliament revealed some opposition, to essential principles of soil con-| servation, chiefly the reafforestation! !of devastated hills where property! lowners resent interference. J

The saving of the native forest! growth on the hills and along river! banks is at the roots of soil preserva-l tion, and convincing evidence onjj that point has been produced in over- 1 whelming volume by people with a t lifelong knowledge of the bush andu of farming, by foresters and by,j engineers. Xo radical reform can ben carried out without some.,no fee!-.( ing aggrieved and resenting interfer-| ence. but a well thought out plan!; which provides effective stoppage ofji the general waste should not beji balked by a few people who put ; self before the common good. ( The Hon. R. Semple. in advocatin? 1 the bill, emphasised the national; responsibility for such a measure ■ of conservation, but he narrowed,l the significance of it when he said i that it was "not a farmer's or a lav-i; man's problem, but an engineers'!] problem." That attitude is surely; wrong. The enormous wastage ofji tbe land, chiefly due to the removal ' of, the soil's natural protection, i<<(

lot merely a matter for thought andj vork by engineers. It is everyone's) oncern; it is certainly the concern; >f farmers and those engaged in' ores try: as for the "layman,"' a term j )ften misapplied, that person is; esponsible for most efforts for the jublic betterment. Those New Zea-j anders, who, without an axe to jrind or any selfish interest to, serve, champion any beneficial effort: ;uch as this, are usually well in-; ormed, their knowledge based on ! ong experience, and it is foolish to! iismiss them as mere laymen. One; arming member of the House! criticised the effort to re-establish' in the hills and ranges the forests! if which they were stripped. "We! cannot help Nature reducing our] hills," he said, in condemning suggestions for reafforestation. There spoke a champion of the ignorant' and selfish policy of the last century, the work of Government and settler alike. It was exactly to reverse or compensate for that destruction that this legislation was planned in the first place. We mav expect to hear hot debates on thi<= subject when the bill again comes before the House. The old ruinous methods die hard.