‘Pollution from farmlands’

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32620, 31 May 1971, Page 2

‘Pollution from farmlands’

(New Zealand Press A.

BLENHEIM, May 30.

Part of the menace of pollution stemmed from agriculture and the pattern of farming now regarded as commonplace, Mr F. J. Murray told the annual conference of Marlborough Federated Farmers in his presidential address.

Most people thought of pollution as industrial menace, detergent scum, and oil slicks, he said. But most of the fresh water pollution in the world stemmed from agriculture because the nutrients farmers supplied to the soil to increase fertility become a deadly killer of marine life.

Many other discharges into freshwater produced pollution, but the lack of oxygen was the biggest killer of all, he said. "By killing marine

growth we destroy water’s ability to absorb oxygen from the atmosphere, thus causing in the extreme an offensive, disease-carrying sewer." Mr Murray said. A lack of oxygen in a Blenheim river had killed all

the fish in one area and caused a health hazard. He had seen algae growing in parts of the Sounds where shellfish were dying out, and an offensive odour was detectable.

“Let the farming industry take stock of its responsibilities to future generations, and let us get some factual information on how we can best keep New Zealand unpolluted,” Mr Murray said. "If we can achieve this state quickly while the more overpolluted areas of the world struggle with their problems, then we, as New Zealanders, can all benefit not only healthfully but also financially from the free advertising this can give to our primary products.”