SOIL EROSION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXVI, Issue 25, 28 December 1945, Page 4

SOIL EROSION

DEMONSTRATION IN FILM. WELLINGTON, Dec. 27. A preview of a colour film entitled "A New Zealand Tragedy," which has been produced by the film section of the Public Works Department under the direction of Mr P. Whitchurch, who also supplies the commentary, was shown in Wellington. The film is being issued by the Woil Conservation and Rivers Control Council and will shortly travel throughout the Dominion in the council's mobile projection plant. The station Molesworth is used as an example of loss of production due to soil erosion which, in the case of Molesworth, it is claimed, was due to a large extent to bad farming practices. Molesworth, which is situaced 85 miles up the Awatere River from Blenheim, had, in 1888, the runs of Tarndale and Rainbow added, making a total of some 300,200 acres, the largest station in the Dominion. Fifty years ago Molesworth was a flourishing productive unit and carried 50,000 sheep, whereas in recent years its production capacity, because of erosion, has deteriorated to such an extent that it became i impossible to farm it profitably. In consequence, it reverted to the control of the Lands Department, which is now conducting a policy of conservation. Stock have been reduced, tussock burning has ceased, and the rabbits are being relentlessly destroyed. In 1939, 70,000 rabbits were killed, and 4400 deer are reported to have been shot in six months. Graphic details of the erosion which has taken place are clearly shown in the film, as also is evidence of the gradual recovery which is now taking place under the present, conservation policy. -