SOIL SURVEY WANTED

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 151, 23 March 1938, Page 12

SOIL SURVEY WANTED

Soldier Settlers On Reporoa Block HIGH STOCK MORTALITY By Telegraph—Press Association. Rotorua, March 22. Kesolutions asking the Government to set up an independent inquiry into the position of settlers in the district, and to carry out a complete soil survey of lands in the area were carried at a represent alive meeting of .soldier settlers on the Reporoa Block, near Rotorua, to-day. The meeting was held to discuss the effect of the recent disclosure that arsenic had been found in the soil and in cattle’s drinking water in parts of the district, and also to ventilate a number of grievances which have been agitating many of the Reporoa settlers for years. The Reporoa Block-, parts of which are of a highly thermal nature, wits settled under the Discharged Soldiers’ Rehabilitation Act, after tiie war. but it was contended that, in spite of years of bard work, the majority of soldier settlers were making no headway. The opinion was expressed that the present position might in some degree be due to unsuspected mineral properties in the soil leading to exceptionally high stock mortality and low butterfat yield. Dissatisfaction was also expressed regarding what were alleged to lie many eases of inconsistent valuations of soldier settlers’ properties, with the result that further difficulties were encountered in farming sections on a payable basis. Many instances were cited of persistently high mortality, both among stock and pigs, over a period of years, and It was decided to ask the Government to carry out a soil survey with the object of ascertaining precisely what the properties of the soil in the area are. Cases of several soldier settlers being forced to walk off their farms because of their being unable to contend with the conditions were instanced, and the opinion expressed that these cases demanded investigation.