DREDGING ON FARM LANDS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21685, 20 January 1936, Page 12

DREDGING ON FARM LANDS

' ♦ DEPARTMENT’S POLICY * DEFINED REPLACEMENT OF SOIL TO 1* COMPULSORY [From Our Own Reporter.] HOKITIKA, January IS, The policy of tb« Mines Department in dealing with applications to dredgr good pasture country was defined by the Minister for Mines (the Hon. R c. Webb) in an interview to-day. q® his tour of the Coast the Minister through hundreds of acres of land near Hokitika made useless fit further development by huge heaps of tailings. He said to-day that the dredging of much of the good chw land in the country had caused a prt>£ lem which would have to be consid* ered. “To drive through large areas-a| dredged country, and gaze on the heaps of stone is an eyesore,” said Mr Webb; “but fortunately most of the land dredged at present was worthless for farming. That applies particularly to the property being worked at present by the Rimu Dredging Company, near Hokitika, for it is land that would not be woyth more than 10s an acre for farming, yet it produces up to £3OOO an acre in gold. The Stafford Company’s field, too, is worth very little as farming country, but for gold-dredging produces £ISOO to the acre. This would be fairly representative of shallow dredging whereas deeper dredging, such as at

Rimu, would be worth double that So it is difficult for the Mines Department to give reasons why land like this should not be dredged. “Farming members of the House have frecfuentlv ( protested against the wilful waste of land, and the depart- ' ment will endeavour to see that tite soil removed from good land through dredging will be restored. As an instance, the Mataki Junction Dredging Company (whose dredge the Minister

declared ready for operations this week) has arranged for apparatus to spread the tailings and restore from four to six feet of soil to the top of the land in its field. This will leave the land very much improved. I can say that where dredges are operating on good rich country, it will be the policy of the Mines Department to Ihsist that the soil be replaced. “J n deep dredging, however, the difficulty of replacing the soil is very much greater, for to dispose of the tailings a stacker is needed, and if- we insist on the soil being replaced it will practically prevent the dredge working because of the low valuta on which the work is being done"