NORTH ISLAND GRASSLAND

Southland Times, Issue 24004, 20 December 1939, Page 12

NORTH ISLAND GRASSLAND

That approximately half the North Island was grassland, and that there were 150 different grasses in New Zealand, were facts revealed in a recent address in Palmerston North. Each of these grasses liked certain conditions, or had their particular habitat. They ranged from those that grew in a dry area to those suited to a heavy rainfall, from those accustomed to tropical temperatures to those growing practically at the line of perpetual snow. Different grasses grew in salt water, on sand dunes, in swamp areas, or alluvial plains and on hill country. The hill country grasses on parts of the East Coast were a natural covering, but in other parts of the North Island the original bush country had been established in grass, and in the course of the conversion the land had to go through phases. So far few areas had been successfully converted from forest to grass, because of the inroads of noxious weeds and ferns. Such country, however, some day would feed the good country on the flats with breeding ewes and cows, and so was of potential value to New Zealand. Alpine country was mainly in tussocks, few of which were edible, and had been gradually destroyed by repeated burning off. Parts of the South Island had become nothing but shingle country and had to be shut up for regeneration. .