MALTREATMENT OF LAND

Grey River Argus, 12 July 1945, Page 8

MALTREATMENT OF LAND

Tragedy of Molesworth All who will pause to give a little thought to the ruinous onset of erosion in many parts of the Dominion will be roused by reading a bulletin, “Tackling High Country Problem Land at Molesworth”, recently p üblished by the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council. “This is a piece of New Zealand, a fairly large piece of more than a quarter of a million acres, representative of vast areas affiliated with similar problems and conditions” the writer states. “This typical piece of our own country: was a flourishingproductive unit twenty-five years ago, and carried 50,000 sheep fifty years ago. “To-day we find that Molesworth Station, far back in the mountains of Marlborough, is a convalescent case. In 1938 the Lands and Survey Department took under its care this badly mauled, anaemic, and exhausted high-country run. It is one of a number of Crown leaseholds from which the leesees have been, forced by economic conditions and soil erosion.”

“The streaming shingle slides that: envelop entire faces, the bare, ghostlike subsoil awaiting its fate, and the gaping rents in the hill sides, dispassionately termed gullies, place this blight of soil erosion in its true perspective, and indicate the far-reach-ing possibilities of this insidious disaster.

“A soil survey recently completed by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research makes its possible to assess the degree and extent of soil loss in the area. It varies from complete removal on stony and steel faces to almost complete removal ■ over large areas growing scabweed and very depleted tussock, to partial removal or more gentle, shady slopes protected by better tussock cover; to alluvial flats and gentle slopes where there is still portion of the mantle of soil. Still more disconcerting is the complete removal of soil by wind erosion ’from almost flat terraces •where the tussock cover has been severely depleted.” Rabbits and deer helped t.o increase the ravages of erosion, foi- which the way was prepared by short-sighted over-burning of tussock-cover and over-grazing. It is mentioned that “the annual rent ' payable to the Crown in compensation for this desecration was £l2OO and? the gross returns quoted were about £15,000 annually.” The Lands and Survey Department, is now busy with the difficult task of bringing back to production some of the areas of that much-abused estate. Copies of the Bulletin are available from the Council without charge.