DREDGING OF LAND

Grey River Argus, 10 December 1938, Page 9

DREDGING OF LAND

Criticism Answered BY HON. P. C. WEBB. “There has been a certain amount, of criticism of the dredge at. Ikamatua ploughing up the land,” said th.' Minister of Mines (Hon. P. C. Webb* at Dobson on Thursday evening. “W? arc living in an age when we have yto rend about £12,000,000 in goods out of the countrv to pay th,? Dominion’* interest, bill each year. There is always a limited market for our primary produce, and New Zealand’s prosperity in the past has been largely dependent on the overseas prices nf our produce. The exchange control adopted by the Government will obviate that position. There is, however, a certain market for gold, although I think all this digging for gold is a future business, and I think that in years from now people will scoff and laugh at us for our waste of energy in getting the gold out of the ground. We are still called unon to pav our interest—-and will for a long time—and gold is very handy for that purpose.” The Minister said that the land where the Rimu dredge operated was. valued at 2s 6d per acre for dairying, purposes. The land was sour and useless and there was no soil to speak, | of. To-dav the company was getting I gold valued at £3OOO out of every acre of the land, and had emnloved 2rmcn for years. To-day trees were growing better on the tailings tharthey could on the land before dredging. At Ikamatua, said the Minister, th ’ Land Board had placed a valuation of £3 10s per acre on the land before dredging. In royalty for gold alone the Government would receive mor? than £lOO per acre, and there was employment on the dredge for many men for 20 years or more. When the company’s license had come before him for approval, he had tagged -if with a stipulation that, in addition tn the gold "tax. the company had to plant a forest on all of the tailings, and the revenue derived from th? gold produced would be sufficient to clear, drain and stump thousands of pgres of good land that was now waste. “The Government,” continued Mr Webb, “protected as far as wa* advisable under present conditions its national assets, but there are few dredges which ar.? dredging land any productive value. The revenue derived from this comparatively unpnoductivejland could well be utilised in bringing into production good land which is at present beyond the control of the individual farmer"