Dust Nuisance Menaces Farms At Onerahi

Northern Advocate, 27 January 1939, Page 8

Dust Nuisance Menaces Farms At Onerahi

Dust blown from the Onerahi aerodrome is seriously affecting nearby farms.

Added to the dryness of pastures is a thick layer of dust on the grass and farmers are puzzled as to the best methods of providing feed for their stock in place of the inedible grass. For the past week the wind has been coming from the south-east and farms on the flat have been literally buried in dust. It has placed a thick deposit on fields and buildings and is devastating orchards. Fruit Threatened. Apples and other fruit are covered and it is feared that ,a shower of rain will do no more than turn this dust into mud. It will take,, two or three days of heavy rain to wash off the dust and make the fruit eatable.

Implements are .also suffering from the inroads of du§t into vital parts. Separators, washed out in the morning, are a mass of dust by evening and have to be kept constantly washed if they ,are to be used.

So bad has become the dust nuisance that workmen on the aerodrome are obliged to protect their faces with masks. Not only does the heavy machinery create clouds of dust, but, with the slightest degree of wind, the light dust blows off the bare ground both night and day.