ARSENIC BEARING SOIL.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 23 March 1938, Page 2

ARSENIC BEARING SOIL.

DOGS SOLDIER FARMERS. INDEPENDENT INQUIRY SOUGHT (By Telegraph—Press Association). EOTOEUA. Last Night. Resolutions asking the Government to set up an independent inquiry into the position of settlers in the district and to carry out a complete soil survey of lands in the area were carried at a representative meeting of soldier settlers on the Eeporoa block, near Eotorua, to-day. The meeting was held to discuss the effect of the recent disclosure that arsenic had been found in the soil and cattle-drinking water in parts of the district and also to ventilate a number of grievances which have been agitating many of the Eeporoa settlers for years. The Eeporoa block, parts of which are of a highly thermal nature, was settled under the Discharged Soldiers Rehabilitation Act after the war, but it was contended that in spite of years of hard work the majority of the soldier settlers were making no headway. The opinion was expressed that the present position might in some degree be due to the unsuspected mineral properties in the soil leading to exceptionally high , stock mortality and low butterfat yield, while dissatisfaction was also ex pressed regarding what were alleged to be many cases of inconsistent valuations of soldier settlers' properties with the result that further difficulties w r ere en- w countered in farming the sections on a payable basis. Many instances were cited of persistently high mortality both among stock and pigs over a period of years, and it was decided to "ask the Government to carry out a soil survey with the object of ascertaining precisely what the properties of the soil in the area are.

Cases of several soldier settlers being forced to walk off their farms owing to their being unable to contend with tin.conditions were instanced, and the opinion was expressed that these cases demanded investigation.