NATURE—AND MAN

Grey River Argus, 7 November 1938, Page 4

NATURE—AND MAN

THE DEMON OF EROSION. A LESSON FROM AUSTRALIA. (Edited by Lee Fanning). A very valuable national service hqs I been done for Australia by the Bank I of. New South Wales with the publicqI tion of a well-illustrated booklet, i titled “Conserve Your Soil —A Simple I Guide to Erosion Control.” Of course, 1 such intelligent enterprise by the bank I should be beneficial to itself, for it hopes to help in the conservation of! 1 natural assets in which it must be I financially interested in the norma) I course of business. The book is excellent from all viewpoints—practical 1 guidance with graphic drawings and reproductions of photographs, with an impressive “make-up.” Here are some passages:— “Soil erosion is causing serious deterioration of the grazing and cultivation lands of Australia. This results in immediate loss for the producer. More important still, it involves lasting damage to a national asset. Thousands of farmers are worried about I this and are seeking advice on how to combat erosion. The Bank of New South Wales has therefore decided to make a contribution to the problem 1 by providing information on control I methods.” “A competent observer from over- , seas has expressed the opinion that over one-half of Australia’s wheat lands needs some form of erosion con-] trol, particularly by contour banks and strip cropping. This would mean that about nine million acres could be treated profitably. The actual area which has been dealt with probably does not exceed 25,000 acres. This gives some measure of the work which lies ahead. Evidences of the progress of soil erosion, are to be seen in nearly any farming district.” » | “Cases can be quoted from wheat] farms on the western slopes of New; South Wales where yields have de-: creased by as much as 50 per cent, as, the top soils have been washed away; and gullies have developed. Hundreds, of paddocks on wheat farms have hadi to be taken out of cultivation because] of erosion and are now carrying only, second grade pastures. In the more] arid areas of South Australia which, were formerly covered with blue-bush] and saltbush it is estimated that only| between 10 and 25 per cent, of the original bush cover remains to-day. In many potato growing districts, such as in the North West of Tasmania, and on the Canoblas Mountains and in the New England Tableland of New South Wales, yields from many paddocks can be attributed largely to the cultivation of fairly steep slopes with no endeavour to check erosion.” “An essential for the control of erosion is that no effort should be spared to eliminate rabbits, which have a very considerable influence in this connection. Frequently they cause erosion by preventing the growth of young trees, by eating grass and even plant roots, and by digging warrens which may make gullies spread. Admittedly there are practical difficulties in destroying rabbits completely on even comparatively small farms. But in nearly every dis 1 trict there are men who have rabbits under control, and this proves that the difficulties can be . overcome by hard work and constant care. On a great number of pastoral properties the degree of erosion could be cut in half if rabbits were destroyed effectively." The special committee which ,1s making an investigation in New Zealand on the cause and cure of soil

erosion should be able to obtain some helpful information from Australia.

RED INDIAN REVERENCE OF NATURE. In a recent column I quoted some passages from Frank Speck’s article on “Aboriginal Conservators.” 1 Here is another piece which shows the oldtime Red Indians’ religious respect for Mother Nature:— “In taking animals for food or for skin, the survivors, as breeding resources, were constantly considered, and the life thus taken was atoned for by rituals of address, apologising in sympathetic phrases for their death. They were thanked for the sacrifice they made to man and death-rites were performd for them with rituals of thanksgiving. Similar rulings were applied to the gathering of plant life and trees when taken for medicine, firewood or bark. The recording, presentation and study of these abundant rituals is the task of ethnologists now working among the various tribes. Even plants when gathered for food or medicine were approached, with reverence and pulled up with discretion through consideration of their own welfare, not only man’s. To tear up plants by the roots in quantities is to the Eastern aborigines like massacre.” MAORIS HAD SIMILAR ATTITUDE. The old-time Maoris had similar reverence for Nature. Here it is appropriate to reprint an ixtract from a “Nature—and Man” article of four years ago:— “Perhaps, to-day, when some of the older Maoris see the evidence of a ruinous landslide on a steep scarp from which the forest has been stupidly cleared by axe and fire, they have thought that the forest god, Tajie*mahuta, has shown his anger. Never, belfore British settlers began their war on the woods, did the Maori people work any needless havoc in a forest. With such respect as devout worshippers have in entering a church, a temple, or a, mosque, they made their way into a forest, eager to avoid offending Tane or any lower spirits or elves. In the Maori hejief the trees themselves were living emanations of Tane, and in all forms of life in the woods the Natives beheld descendants of the various gods, whose anger could be aroused by man’s carelessness, igronance, or disrespect. “Therefore, religious rites, to lift the tapu from the forest and its denizens, were performed by. the tribal priests at the opening of each season for the gathering of fruits. No tree was felled for any purpose until special rites and invocations had been performed to appease the gods, particularly Tane.”