HIGH-COUNTRY LAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27385, 10 May 1950, Page 8

HIGH-COUNTRY LAND

Spelling And Treatment COMPENSATION TO BE SOUGHT PA INVERCARGILL, May 9. The Government’s approval of legislation and regulations which would encourage hill country farmers to spell and treat land for soil conservation and under which compensation would be paid for loss of its use and for the cost of its treatment, is sought by the New Zealand Catchment Boards’ Association. The association decided at its conference, which ended at Invercargill today, that because the matter is one of policy it will be referred to affiliated associations before action is taken. It was further decided that the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council join the association in its representations to the responsible Minister to obtain his approval for its aims to be made practically effective because there are no funds or power provided by the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council Act or its amendments for the payment of equitable compensation. The association will inform the council that it proposes that all catchment boards surrender their compulsion powers and meanwhile act on education, persuasion, negotiations, and example for securing the good husbandry of land. The time had arrived when the hill country occupier should be encouraged, in soil conservation interests, to spell and treat his land, declared the president, Mr W. Machin. Compensation would, of course, be under proper safeguards. It was to be noted that the Sheep Farming Industry Commission stated in its report that more than 8,000,000 acres of hill or steep land was or liable to be eroded and that more than 3.000,000 acres would be affected by moderate erosion. Mr Machin added, however, that the commission, surprisingly, deprecated in other parts of its report the term erosion, but it pressed strongly for assistance by the State for the high country farmer and his land.