PREVENTION OF FLOODING

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28562, 16 April 1958, Page 12

PREVENTION OF FLOODING

Tree-Planting In Back Country (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, April 15. The planting of trees, creepers and undergrowth on headwaters country to help curb river flooding and prevent soil erosion is being considered by the Minister of Forests (Mr Tirikatene). In an interview at Dargaville during the borough’s jubilee celebrations, Mr Tirikatene said flooding and erosion had become national problems and measures to combat them were a matter of urgency. The State Forest Service would have to be geared to work in with catchment boards and soil conservation councils in planning cover growth on headwaters country, he said. The scheme would mean a tremendous amount of extra work for the service which would have to propagate the trees and other growth.

Landholders would have to face up to the problem and sacrifice pastoral country in the higher areas to safeguard the more valuable land and towns on lowlying levels.

Mr Tirikatene said that 100,000 acres of sheep station country in the Gisborne area had been given by the owners for treeplanting purposes and it was imperative that farmers in other areas co-operated in like measure.

“There is no denying that, although rainfall during the past few years has been less than previously, floods have been bigger,” he said. “The covering of headwaters country is the obvious answer.”