GOLD-DREDGE TRAILS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19759, 13 October 1938, Page 10

GOLD-DREDGE TRAILS

PLANTATIONS OF TREES

REDUCTION OF WASTELANDS

So that dredging claims in goldbearing areas shall not become weedinfested and unsuitable for farming, the Government has taken .steps to see that dredging companies do not leave the land to waste, stated the Minister of Mines, the Hon. P. C. Webb, in Auckland. The Mines -Department now issues licenses on the condition that trees shall be planted on all land left in a state unsuitable for farming, he added, so that the districts should become more valuable national assets then they otherwise would be.

The Minister quoted the Barrytown area on the West Coast of the South island, where there was dredging on land that was chiefly swamp. As the dredge advanced the soil was replaced and it was found that the land was much improved for general farming. Where deep dredging was carried out, and the soil covering was comparatively thin, this method was not practicable, but tree-planting was an 'alternative, and pines which had .jrown in the trail oi gold dredges vvere showing uncommonly good growth. In many instances these trees were larger than those planted at the same time in virgin country in the neighbourhood.