DREDGING FARM LANDS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18922, 25 January 1936, Page 16

DREDGING FARM LANDS

POLICY OF DEPARTMENT REPLACEMENT OF SOIL The policy of the Mines Department in dealing' with applications to dredge good pasture country has been defined by the Minister of Mines, the Hon. p! C. Webb. On his tour of the West Coast the Minister passed through hundreds of acres of land near Hokitika 'made useless for further . development by huge heaps of tailings. He said that the dredging of much of the good-class land in the country had caused a problem which would have to be considered.

'.'To gaze on the heaps of stone is an eyesore," said Mr Webb; "but, fortunately, most of the land dredged at present was almost worthless for farming. That applies particularly to the property being worked by the Eimu Dredging Company, near Hokitika, for it is land that would not be worth more than 10s an acre for farming, yet it produces up to £3OOO an acre in gold. The Stafford Company's field, too, is worth little as farming country, but for gold-dredging produces £ISOO to the acre.

"The department will endeavour to see that the soil removed from good laud through dredging will be restored. As an instance, the Mataki Junction Dredging Company has arranged for apparatus to spread the tailings and restore from four to six feet of soil to the top of the land in its field. This will leave the land very much improved."