SOIL EROSION

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 17, 21 January 1939, Page 14

SOIL EROSION

HALTING DAMAGE

LEGISLATION PENDING

"NO HALF MEASURES"

Landslides and the flooding of rivers over rich pastures when native bush in the high country is destroyed, the conserving of soil, and disease in stock were questions bracketed in a discussion at a local body deputation to the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) today.

It was pointed out to the Minister that soil erosion had been going on in New Zealand for many years, and that some of the land i i different districts, now badly affected,' had once provided the finest pastures in the Dominion.

"It is as difficult as it is to persuade Parliament of the wisdom of running a State lottery." remarked a speaker, "to get some folks, who knock the bush off the slopes of their land which runs down to a river, to understand that with every blow of the axe they are saying good-bye to their crops and grass. I think the Government is in for a big job trying to put it into the heads of some on the land that .they are laying up something solid for themselves—firing and felling the bush which gives their land and stock protection from the dreaded erosion. I know I have played my part to put some vim into the council and the conference in dealing vpth this matter, but we must have greater powers than now exist to grapple with the problem." SERIOUS PROBLEM." "It is of no use going in for halfmeasures," said Mr. Parry, "in dealing with a problem so serious to the Dominion as soil erosion. The irreparable damage done to some of the cream of New Zealand's acres is almost colossal. But the. Government does not intend to dwell upon the past; it is now and the future with which the Government is concerned. The pending legislation in an effort to cope with the problem has already been announced, and the sooner it is on the Statute Book the better it will be for the country."

Three of the most important and serious questions of the day, as he viewed them, Mr. Parry said, were erosion and the conserving of soil, noxious weeds, and the diseases in stock which periodically occurred.

"One of the largest activities of the Department I administer," remarked the Minister, "is local government, in which is wrapped up a varied list of the problems of the land. Almost the first trouble that confronted me on joining the Ministry, was river flood erosion. The damage done to valuable land by the removal of bush from hill slopes came before me like a nightmare everywhere I travelled to meet local bodies. I set out with some of my colleagues three years ago with a determination to help grapple with erosion. We must save the soil; it is the country's foundation for all things, and the assistance, of all is needed to do so. The Government, in seeking to obtain Parliament's aid to make greater headway than in the past several years in dealing with the question, will have, I know, the wholehearted support of local bodies and the people."