‘CATCHMENT BOARDS EXAGGERATED N.Z. EROSION PROBLEMS’

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 August 1949, Page 3

‘CATCHMENT BOARDS EXAGGERATED N.Z. EROSION PROBLEMS’

WELLINGTON, August 19 (P.A.). —A stout defence of the findings of the Sheep Industry Commission on soil erosion in New Zealand farmlands was made in the Legislative Council this afternoon by Mr R. Eddjr (Wellington), who was a member bi the commission. Mr Eddy said that maps examined by the commission showing allegedly eroded areas were quite wrong in many instances, and were gross exaggerations of the tru£ position, some catchment board officers had The tactless methods adopted by antagonised farmers. The erosion problem was nothing like it was represented to' be by “catchment board propaganda.” f Mr Eddy said he believed that with the co-operation of the Public Works Department and county councils, erosion could be prevented without the need for catchment boards to send men out with theodolites and theories. “Catchment boards are the best propagandists in the world,” Mr Eddy said. “The Communist Party has nothing on them. They purport to be the friend of the farmer, but when a man comes along and says he has the power to take a couple _ of your paddocks without compensation, it’s liable to make any one see a little red.” He had noticed that one catchment board member had said that if they did not get some money they would have to close down, said Mr Eddy. That might be a good way of getting rid of them. He acknowledged that catchment boards had done a good job, particularly in Canterbury, Manawatu and on the East Coast, but he considered nothing they had done could not have been accomplished by co-operation between the Public Works Department, county councils and farmers.