The Bay of Plenty Times FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1949. MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 14930, 18 March 1949, Page 2

The Bay of Plenty Times FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1949. MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD

“Food for Britain” has now become as ■familial’ to ns as any phrase in the language. How many of those who are rightly bending every effort in the required direction have ever stopped to wonder if our soils are capable of withstanding the heavy strain which it seems will be imposed upon them almost indefinitely. In his recent talk to farmers at Te Poke the Director of the Grasslands Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Mr Bruce Levy stressed the necessity of safe-guarding-.pur grasslands against deterioration and of ‘balancing up the return and withdrawal of plant foods from the soil. The mumral outgo he said, must be provided from the world’s store and this should be regarded as more precious than gold. No country, he pointed out, could export animal or animal products without some loss of soil fertility.

in the course of his evidence before the Auckland Sewerage Commission, Professor V. J. Chapman, Professor of Botany at Auckland University College, emphasised the value of compost, such as might be made from town wastes, in restoring humus to the soil. The head of the Department of Geography at the same institution, Dr. K. B. Cumberland, said that such a scheme, ultimately practised in different parts of the country, would be of immense value to New Zealand and to the underfed people in many parts of the world. lie pointed out that the humus content of much of New Zealand’s soil had been seriously reduced since European settlement.

An experienced farmer and a member of the Wool Board, Mr Briscoe Moore, told the same Commission that every year thousands of tons of valuable organic matter which should be going back on to the land was being pumped out to sea. The opportunity, he said, was now offered to the Auckland civic authorities to give a lead to New. Zealand in an enlightened policy which would seek to recover and use, to the benefit of the land which fed the city, the valuable material which was now being recklessly wasted. In the face of such evidence as this, it will be criminal folly for which future generations will pay dearly,’ if Tauranga and the other towns and cities of New Zealand continue to allow the needless waste which has been permitted for so long to continue, a day longer than is absolutely necessary.