‘Tragic' distrust of agriculture in N.Z.

Press, 7 May 1980, Page 14

‘Tragic' distrust of agriculture in N.Z.

The present “national distrust” of agriculture was tragic because it occurred when thousands of hectares of the South Island couid be developed, an authority on range management told the South Island Promotion Association conference at Westport. .Professor K. F. O'Connor, professor of range management at Lincoln College, said that the peak rates of production in the high country and tussock hill country of the South Island could exceed those of the Manawatu or the Waikato. “I consider that our national distrust of agriculture, and our aversion to it, is tragic, because it is occurring at the very time when science and technology make thousands of hectares that have been little more than wastelands progressively invaded by weeds potentially available for agriculture,” Professor O’Connor said. Many New Zealanders had grown “mightily frustrated” at the apparent inertia of the New Zealand farming system, he said. “There is increasing Government disenchantment with agriculture as the main area for national attention for the sake of economic growth. “In neglecting the fundamental diagnosis of agri-

cultural malaise, we repeat the error of nondeveloping countries a decade ago.” The attitudes to agriculture which he lamented also applied to forestry. New Zealand could produce high quality euc a I y p t u s hardwoods, Douglas fir and redwood forests in many hill landscapes, hardy pine forests nnlthe sub-alpine zone, and specialty native timbers of great' worth for the future. But the forest industry was weighted towards

short rotation pulp and saw-log production, he said. “Our institutional conventions militate against the integration of production forestry into our (arming system. even though social and aesthetic or ecological factors cry out for such an integration.” In spite of the opportunities for diversified for-estry-farming systems, the vision of the South Island’s forest future was much more limited. “The lens of current social attitudes mounted in the horn-rims ■ of institutional conventions and perched on the sensitive nose of short-term profits would ensure short-haul radiata woodlots near Nelson, Picton, and Dunedin, and perishing little else,” Professor O’Connor said. There were no easy answers to natural resource development issues. But he advised that anyone who intended to support any particular cause should demand better access to information in the public interest than was the custom in New Zealand. “Either we have serious participator resource use planning or we shall have destructive resource use. conflict,” he warned. The complete economic analysis of any big development project should be ~ made public. “Ecological facts are made public. Why not economic?” Professor O’Connor asked.