THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. “ MONDAY MARCH 15, 19487 ~ Future Of New Zeal and's Marginal Lands

Northern Advocate, 15 March 1948, Page 2

THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. “ MONDAY MARCH 15, 19487 ~ Future Of New Zeal and's Marginal Lands

The setting up of a Royal Commission to investigate the possibilities of profitably farming hill counlrv and at the came time preventing aggravation of the huge losses already suffered by New Zealand owing to soil erosion due in.the first place to injudicious employment of axe and fire on steep hillsides, has very understandably moved progressive and far-seeing farmers to try to inspire widespread interest in a highly important question. There is general agreement that much land which should never have had its pristine garb of tree and vegetation disturbed has been irretrievably ruined by ill-advised attempts to bring it into productivity, but there is nevertheless a case to be made out for the contention tnat some areas it is suggested should ue withdrawn from farming operations ought not to' oe allowed to revert - io second growth and attendant pests and rubbish.

The size of New Zealand suggests that fertile soil available for development is limited, but so favoured is the Dominion by climate that, as experience has proved, it is not easy to place limits upon the soil’s productivity if maximum advantage is taken of scientific aids now provided for the farmer who has the means and the desire to make use of them.

Opinion differs as to whether the best land of the Dominion should first be brought into production by subdivision into economic units .and the concentration of scientific knowledge and technique upon it, to the exclusion of secondary and thirdclass land, or whether, hand in hand with the development of already improved land there should not be made a determined attempt to bring in areas now despised and rejected.

Especialy does this division of opinion exist in regard to the bigii country suitable mainly for sheep farming, but, at the same time possessing areas required for general agriculture.

Admittedly a considerable area of this class of country exists, but its very nature, especially where erosion has worked havoc, calls for the exercise of the utmost care, based on scientific knowledge.

It is to ascertain the views of men who have had experience of marginal country that the Royal Commission has been set up. and it is with the object of preparing worthwhile evidence to guide the commissioners that branches of Federated Farmers

are taking steps to enthuse pastoralists and others within their respective districts.

, So far as Northland is concerned, leaders of the Federated Farmers are taking steps to awaken their members to the need for contributing as far as possible to the assembling of evidence to oe placed before the Royal Commission.

The president of the Northern Wairoa branch, Mr S. S. Green, has taken up the cudgels against the proposed retirement of high land, pointing out that while the bush on some steep and difficult land should never have been felled, there are many areas equally difficult and steep that are actually being farmed profitably to both individual and nation.

He argues that success in land development hinges upon the individual to a great extent, a fact which must be taken into consideration when the future deve. apment of the marginal lands of the Dominion is under review.

Asked what he meant by hill country and marginal lands, Mr B. Levy, an acknowledged eminent authority on grasslands, gave a definition which should help Northland farmers to form an opinion of the possibilities of land with which they are acquainted.

“I would define marginal lands in the North Island,” he said, “as those lands incapable of carrying in their original state developmentally or in their ultimate static improved state three, or less than three, sheep per acre, plus store cattle. This figure may seem nigh, but, as fax' as I can sec. any country has but little chance cf looking after itself until it gets well into the 3-4 sheep per acre plus cattle, and .this should bo the prior objective.” * To reach this standard. Mr Green quoted opinions which farmers had expressed hi correspondence with him, these stressing the need for the State to provide cheap fertiliser, farm machinery at a subsidised rate, cheaper finance and state housing in backblock centres in areas where farmers' in surrounding districts could guarantee continual employment.

We have referred to only some aspects of the question upon which the Royal Commission is seeking information, and it behoves farmers, in their own interests, and that of the Dominion, to make their considered contributions.