LANDS DETERIORATION.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XIX, Issue 2050, 2 December 1924, Page 5

LANDS DETERIORATION.

COMMISSION AT PIO PIO. There was a large attendance at the sitting of the Lands Deterioration Commission ait Pio Pio on Monday. The evidence of numerous settlers from different part of tiie district was taken. Mr 11. Voyce, Pungaiehai Road, said he had 1900 acres on L.I.P. tenure. He noticed that .the land began to go hack after about four years. In nearly all the Mairoa country there was a growth calked pukau which induced a second growth of water fern, etc. After sowing, say, 100 acres one might get only 60 acres of grass out of it, and the rest would vanish into the pukart. It was such an exceptionally wet country that they could not get a second burn like they did in Hawke’s Bay and the older districts. One had to have plenty of cattle, and it was difficult to say what proportion because the country was so patchy. The mortality among stock was high; last winter he lost 40 cattle out of 150. When they were in low condition they got ilKto the bogs and swamps and could not get o.it. A liberal topdressing would shorten the winter by abdut six weeks. It cost him £3 a ton for cartage. The first blocks .in tlie Mairoa were rented at 6d per acre, but the next were double, and the third double again, and the first blocks were the best land. He paid 2-£d in the £ in rates. He thought the counties in this new country should get a higher subsidy than these in the older districts which at present got exactly the same advantages without anything like the difficulties. He thought it cost more 'to get this country into pasture than, say, round Dannevirke, because of the second growth. If a man could come in with sufficient capital to dd it properly it would not be so bad, but the trouble was that most came in with tlieir hands and. their head and had to raise capital on improvements as they made them to make more. He was not prepared to say thaft the sward wtlild hoicl as long as it did in Dannevirke. The chief expense in reclaiming the second growth was losses among tlie cattle. His was a fair average of the Mairoa. bush country. Mr C. H. Cox, Mangataki Rjaad, stated that lie had 1500 acres L.I.P. which was originally good heavy bush country, lie hod bought it at a goodwill of £5 per acre and had done no felling himself. Cocksfoot was holding very well and there was some good clover. Losses of cattle and cartage at £3 a ton for 20 miles were his chief handicaps. About four miles of his road was very bad. He paid £IOO in rates, partly special. The trouble in fern crushing was that one had to buy cat/tlo when they were dear and sell when they were cheap. One of the greatest difficulties of most men was that they had! no money for stock. Whether one had grass or not made no difference with the stack firms and banks and they forced yc/t to sell when they wished regardless of your advantage. One wanted a beast to five acresT He preferred the daily type because they could be handled when they gent into difficulties. The firms charged 4 per cent for selling at auction sales. The Commissioner: Four per cent 1 Oh! Mr Cox: Yes. In the Wairarapa they charge 2| per cent in the paddock or 3 per cent in 'the yards. Tlie Commissioner: Yes, that is the usual rate*

Mr Cox: They charge 4 per cent all through tlio King Country. The firms do pretty well. They had more stock at tine sales than they can handle ancl are often selling till dark. Ho continued that sales were held only once in three weeks. They last so late that many would-be buyers had to leave before the sale is over. It would be much better if they were held fortnighty. Mr J. J. Murray said he had been 21 years in. the district. He had experimented with surface sown manures and thought they woluld be the salvation of the country. The great trouble was finance and the cost of getting the manure ou the ground. The settlers had come from such places as Itangitikei and had sown the old grasses they were used to, which had not done well here. He thought Mr Voyce had given the Commission a very good outline ojf the position. Mr Prouse, Te Mapara, said most of his land was ploughable, but this did: not apply to his neighbours. His troubles were manuka and fern and the difficulty of getting finance. Manure cost him Cl 2 a ton on the place. Cartage cost £5 a. ton. It would save him £3 a ton if they could get the manure from Mnticre, but the loads were not fit to use until it was too late to get the manure. Ait the present cost it did not pay to nia.iV.ire, Mr R. Buddy said the first thing to be done was to classify the land as there were several sorts in the district. Some could he worked easily; others could he if the access was good, and the third was hopeless. This would grow nothing bu,t honeysuckle and other bushes which were on it now. There was not more deceptive country than this. Good heavy tawa bush was- in other parts of New Zealand an indication of good land, hut was not so here. The ,third-class should be abandoned altogether, but it was possible to bring the number two class into productivity, lit would lie black loam overlying' choeolaite clay. He recommended blood and bone, the results of which lie had seen last as long as eight years. It cost him £l2 ,5s at Auckland. As to fencing, some country one could not hold in 50-acre paddocks, in others 200 acres was not too large. Water fern was a big problem because burning the bracken did not kill it. A great many settlers were paying interest on improvements which had long vanished. He did not believe in large areas in the poorer laud and doubted whether you eoi.ild get the man with a large capital on to it. He thought it would be of great assistance to the King Country counties if there was a classification of counties. The revenue of these’ counties was decreasing and 'their expenditure increasing, and they required more, financial assiitanee than those in the older districts. He recalled that before the war a classification scheme had been mooted. He did not .mean that they should have more than '£sooo, but if there was any shortage they should be considered before those who were in a position to arrange finance for themselves.