SOIL SUICIDE

Grey River Argus, 27 December 1941, Page 2

SOIL SUICIDE

The term “soil suicide" is used by a New Zealand writer, Thomas A. F. Stone, in a treatise on “Universal Race Suicide.” He states thjat a' single violent rainstorm has been observed to remove 39 tons of solid soil to the acre —equivalent to 25,000 tons to the square mile. After two- days’ heavy rain at Te Awa, Pohangina County, in 1939, a creek, which usually is a very shallow stream, became a roaring, raging torrent, 30ft. wide and 20ft. deep. It is estimated that the wild rush of water carried away about 50,000 tons of soil to the sea. Mr. Stone calculates that, because of forest destruction and consequent soil erosion, New Zealand is losing annually at least 400 million tons of soil in solid and in liquid form—or more than 300 times the weight of the rock phosphate fertiliser annually used in New Zealand in the attempt to maintain fertility of the surface.