GUM LANDS AND THE DANTHONIA GRASS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11637, 26 April 1901, Page 3

GUM LANDS AND THE DANTHONIA GRASS.

TO THE EDITOB. Sir,—The Herald has been doing good public service in from lime to time calling attention to the spread of the Danthonia grass over the gurnfields of the North. I should not myself ask for space for a word on the subject but, for the fact that it is only by constant iteration that the minds of most people are impressed by a new idea. -1 no gum lands have hitherto been regarded as almost worthless for either pastoral or agricultural purposes. Hence neither capital nor science has been brought to bear upon them. They have remained the happy hunt-ing-grounds of the wild gumdigger. 'Nature' herself, however, seems now to have come to the rescue, and in (spreading over the country the Danthonia grass has shown that there were latent qualities in these muchtraduced soils that she only needed time and opportunity to brine to light. In the Riding of Birkenhead, with which I am best acquainted, wherever there is a patch of soil free from scrub this grass is taking possession and apparently expelling the less hardy growths around it, If a fire is put through the manuka scrub the grass quickly makes itself evident even in the . poorest of soils. Moreover, it has come to stay. As some of your correspondents have pointed out, it has been under observation for some years, but it is only of late that its merits as a fodder on which sheep and cattle will thrive and fatten have been recognised- There are many hundreds of acres of so-called poor gum land within a radius of 10 miles of the city—especially on the north side of the harbour— are at present barren, unsightly

wastes of poor' tea-tree. These lands for many years have been in private hands, the absentee owners—" enemies of society," as our friends the single-taxers would call them —apparently waiting patiently for the belated unearned increment, the only satisfaction they have meanwhile derived from their ownership being the privilege of meeting the annual; demand for the local rates. Now, sir, I would point out that for the very small outlay involved in burning off the scrub and surface sowing these lands with Danthonia, the _ owners can turn them, into profitable grazing areas as good as are to be seen on the Canterbury plains and other Southern districts. _ This done, they could either sell or lease their holdings, and thus recoup themselves for the first cost of the land paid into the public chest (of which single-taxers, as well as others, have had the benefit), and also secure some return for their yearly outlay in rates. The cultivation of this' grass has now passed the experimental stage. It has been shown to succeed as a permanent pasture wherever it has been laid down, even on the hungriest soil, and there is now no reason why the extensive areas of waste lands around the city should not rapidly be occupied and turned to profitable rase. The people of Auckland have, indeed, almost at their doors, a wide field of enterprise that would be found more lasting and profitable than either the gold or the gumfields. The question is, Will they avail themselves of it?— am, etc, H. J. Blxth. Greenhithe, April 22, 1901.