CONSERVATION OF SOIL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 195, 19 July 1937, Page 6

CONSERVATION OF SOIL.

Severe drought in parts of the United States and Canada has brought forcibly before the authorities the tremendous economic wastage that is taking place in the denudation of soil and the loss of crops and farm stock. The Government of Canada is considering a scheme to cost 400 million dollars, by means of which the waters of two of Saskatchewan’s rivers will be harnessed for distribution in areas of this prairie province which have suffered extensively. The need for irrigation to meet the exigencies of drought periods has been adequately proved. The United States is planning remedial measures on a tremendous scale. In his recent message to Congress President Roosevelt asked for authorisation for seven regional authorities covering immense areas, of which the Tennessee Valley Authority will form only one. The main object is to prevent floods and conserve soil, and associated with this is a wide field of economic reconstruction and agricultural development. In this way is Nature’s challenge to mankind to be met. Figures published in the United States show the strength of this challenge, which has no parallel elsewhere in the world. From either of the twin causes of water and wind erosion 50 million acres of once fertile land have been ruined for cultivation; another 50 million acres are in almost as serious a condition; 100 million acres in cultivation have been seriously impoverished by loss of soil, and a similar area is being depleted of productive soil at an alarming rate. Actually three-quarters of the crop land is subject to erosion. The effect of this national disaster has been a forced migration from the destroyed lands, and unparalleled hardships for those whose farms have been partly ruined. Mr Roosevelt plans to arrest this process, and a great national campaign will be undertaken by the National Planning Board through the regional bodies to last-for many years. As in the United States so in Canada, public opinion has been deeply stirred by the tremendous economic wastage caused by drought, flood, and wind erosion wherever it has taken place, lienee the large-scale plans to meet the menace.

In Thames there is a man who during the course of his day’s work rides Jus bicycle over 15 miles. Weekly, lie completes 100 miles, and for a year s work his mileage runs out at something over. 5000 more than some motorists do in a year. A small school of whales has been seen repeatedly during the past few days in the vicinity of Mangamaunu, 85 miles south of Blenheim, and a great deal of interest has been aioused among workers on and travellers along the coast.

As a result of the offer made by the acting-Minister of Labour, Hon. P. C. Webb, to advance £4 a week per man as a subsidy from the employment promotion fund toward the placing in employment for four months of a large number of able-bodied men now on sustenance, the Levin borough lias given an undertaking to employ ten such men on this basis.

“Boys start football too young here,” said Dr. W. S. Seed, president of the Canterbury Rugby Union, to an interviewer. He instanced the case of a 10-year-old boy, who, seeking entrance to a school, found that in that school football was barred to hoys under 12. His parents then, gave in to his persuasion, and he was sent where he could play football. That this situation should exist was an indication of a poor state of affairs in school football, Dr. Seed said.

An effort is being made to raise a private fund to supplement what can be provided out of rates for the upkeep of the historic and picturesque graveyard that surrounds St. Stephen’s Chapel in Judge’s Bay, Parnell. Auckland. In the little wooden chapel itself the constitution of the Anglican Church in New Zealand was formulated just 80 years ago and signed upon the altar. Pioneer missionaries. Government officials, soldiers and humbler folk lie in tile church yard. In 1936 the land was vested in the Auckland City Council, but the council lias had little money to spare for the upkeep of the cemetery, and a supplementary fund is now being raised.

Plans for the reconstruction and remodelling of certain portions of the Levin Post Office have been drafted, and allow for extensions to the mailroom, exchange and public counter. The plans also provide for the remodelling of the main entrance.

Congratulations were extended at today’s meeting of the Palmerston North Rotary Club to Rotarians W. G. Black, Framjeo and Jaggard on their having established 100 per cent, attendance for the year. Twelve other members, it was stated, had reached over 00 per cent. An additional £3O 000 has been granted to enable the work on the Ngaruroro River scheme to be completed by manual labour instead of by machinery, as originally intended, according to advice received by the Hawke’s Bay Rivers Board from the acting-Minister, Hon. P. C. Webb. The chairman of the Dannevirke Hospital Board, ‘Mr L. Stein, reported at a meeting of the board tliat tl\e plans for additions to the hospital were now before the Health Department. Formal legal resolutions were passed in connection with the loan of £IO.OOO from the State Advances Corporation. A decision to offer up to £2OO to cover the cost of 25 special sunshine beds for the use of crippled children was made at a recent meeting of the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Crippled Children Society. The beds are to be made available to sufferers at the Wilson Home for Qrippled Children at Takapuna.

The Dominion pibrochs championship decided at the annual competitions of the Invercargill Piping Competitions Society on Saturday resulted as follows :—Murdoch McKenzie (Masterton), 274 points. 1 ; J. A. Cameron (Mataura), 2731, 2; G. M. Roberston (Tinwald), 273, 3; Archie MacMillan (Dunedin), 272, 4.—Press Association. The days of the Boer War were recalled on Saturday evening when a reunion of those who served in South Africa took place in Levin under the auspices of the Levin branch of the South African War Veterans’ Association. More than 80 veterans attended. Among the visitors were Colonel J. H. Whyte and Mr J. Linklater, of Palmerston North.

Sports were abandoned and the countryside received a thorough drenching in Hawke’s Bay at the week-end. In the high country snow was recorded, and on the flats it was feared that with a continuation of. the cold conditions lambing would be affected. Reports from the far back-country state that the snow is lower than usual at this time of year.

Representations will be made to the Government urging the extension" of the pension system to mothers who are prevented from earning their living through having to attend to a crippled child, if a remit to this effect from the Canterbury and Westland branch of the New Zealand Crippled Children Society is approved at the annual meeting of the society in Wellington next month. A heavy hailstorm was experienced at Tokora, about three or four miles from Hawera, the other morning. The sound of its approach could be heard a long way off, and the ground was covered to a depth of about an inch, while in drifts on sloping ground the hail piled up to the depth of a foot or more. The hail was of peculiar formation, being an ice core with an outer covering of soft snow.

“Perhaps the time will arrive when a study of international affairs will form a definite part of the cirriculum of all secondary schools at least, and it would quite properly be within the province of Rotary in New Zealand to support such a movement,” said Mr H. B. Reid, in reporting to to-day’s annual meeting of the Palmerston North Rotary Club on the activities of the international service committee.

“Aly life has not been in vain,” said a speaker whose remarks caused amusement at the conclusion of a meeting of poultry keepers at Christchurch. “J have lived to see the poultry keepers unanimous about something at last. It makes me think the age of miracles is not over.” The meeting, which was attended by about 100 poultry keepers, decided to ask the Government to establish a central grading floor for eggs at Christchurch.

After negotiations extending over a period of years, the Ellesmere Lands Drainage Board, in conjunction with the Canterbury Progress League, lias been able to complete arrangements with the Government for the provision of a permanent outlet for the waters of Lake Ellesmere to the sea to prevent the flooding of farm lands when rough seas close the present outlet. The scheme is estimated to cost approximately £120,000. The Wellington Diocesan Synod passed a resolution at one of its sessions expressing the opinion that all moneys expended in presentations to individuals should be raised by special subscriptions for the purpose and not contributed from the ordinary parochial revenue. Bishop Holland said that, owing to certain facts which had come to the knowledge of the committee on parochial returns, it was felt that the position should be known by all the vestries. “The general improvement in economic conditions has, most fortunately, minimised the calls for assistance on behalf of those who had suffered so severely through the period of depression,” said the president (Mr G. G. Priest) in his annual report to to-day’s meeting of the 'Palmerston North Rotary Club. “Consequently,” he added, “members have not been asked to respond to requests for community service in the "measure in which they so readily acted in previous years. It is gratifying to record, however, that individual members are actively engaged in service through the various organisations in the community, and are thus fulfilling in a valuable manner the objects of Rotary.”