RECLAMATION AREA.

Northern Advocate, 31 May 1924, Page 2

RECLAMATION AREA.

RACECOURSE POSSIBILITIES. VISIT OF INSPECTION. - On Thursday afternoon 28 members of the Whangarei Eacing Club visited the Harbour Board's reclamation opposite Mr Reyburn's property on the Whangarei to Onerahi Eoad. The cars which conveyed them to the proposed site for a racecourse ran along the stop-banks, which are 150 feet wide, to a point between the Whangarei Eiver and Poke's Island, which is an oasis of native trees and under scrub in the midst of a great area of flat lanjl devoid at present of any grfiwth except some weeds and a few sickly sprouts of mangrove. The area offered to the Racing Club lies between Pohe's Island and the Short Eeach. On the western side it is bounded by a wide stop-bank and along the Short Eeach it is protected from the tide by a narrower bank, and its surface is drained by a wide ditcii some four feet deep. The party walked right across the flat, and. despite tfee heavy rains recently the ground was so firm that it was noticed that the president, Mr E. G. Hosking, and his company dia not sink any deeper than the thickness of the soles of their boots. There were no soft places and the whole area was remarkably firm. Shells were noticeable on the surface, but not in large beds, although where ploughing liad been done, as a preliminary to the experiments being conducted by the combined Cricket and Hockey Associations, the layers of shell had been brought to the top in several patches. This fact led to a general discussion upon the possibility of grassing the area without working the sub-soil, and several inclined to the belief that it could be done successfully. Mr G. E. Alderton, who has had experience in breaking in flats on the Northern Wairoa, considered that a grass which, had covered a barren island off the Tasmanian coast would thrive on the flats even before the salt had all been washed out of the soil. A crop of turnips would also assist towards attainment of that end. He thought that the property could be grassed within three years. Other opinions expressed embraced shallow ploughing and feeding off the crops of fleabane which, judging from .the stop-banks, would grow there. At present no self-sown grass is evident on the flat,, but around the stopbank there are patches of clovers, paspalum and many other grasses seemingly growing well in the spoil pumped from the channel. Most of the visitors were of opinion that the flats would ultimately become first-class land, but that it would take time to make them such. There are, however, so many conflicting opinions that further negotiations in regard to the proposal to secure the area will be interesting.