WASTAGE OF SOIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22434, 2 June 1936, Page 10

WASTAGE OF SOIL

WASHED AWAY IN RIVERS RESULT OF BUSH CLEARING "Tho muddiest rivers are carrying to the sea the cream of New Zealand's soil, and the only remedy is to save the bush, increase it and multiply nature's guard against loss of top soil," states an authoritative article in this month's issue of Forest and Bird. "When one fees yellow rivers and stained estuaries, one may conclude that there goes fertility, the best of the country's soil." The bottom of Cook Strait must contain many thousands of tons of fertile soil that once nourished the roots of Now Zealand's primeval forest, the article states. A study of the map of the State Forest Service, showing tho areas of bush remaining, would reveal the tremendous increase in the rate of deposit from tho land in the ..past 85 years compared with the centuries previous to that. When it rained and tho water gathered and rushed over higher lands and steeper faces denuded of trees and shrubs, ferns and mosses, and whereever those rivers joined larger issues and met rivers flowing seaward, great soil losses occurred.

From time to time when tho Government steamer Matai cruised round about New Zealand coasts a line was lowered and samples dredged from the bottom of the sea for the purpose of research. This work was carried out by Dr. P. Marshall, geologist in the employ of tho Public Works Department.