The Problem of Soil Erosion

Southland Times, Issue 24355, 8 February 1941, Page 6

The Problem of Soil Erosion

A LTHOUGH the adoption of large- -*-*■ scale measures for dealing with soil erosion in New Zealand will probably have to wait until after the war, there is no reason why intensive research into the extent and nature of the problem, and a certain 1 amount of preliminary work, should not be carried out in the meantime. The Southland Progress League, at its meeting on Thursday night, considered and endorsed a motion passed at the recent conference of South Island Progress Leagues directing the Government’s attention to the serious rate of erosion and urging preventive and reclamatory action. The league had before it a letter from the Minister of Scientific and Industrial Research in which he outlined the progress that has been made since the publication in 1939 of the report of an expert committee. This committee, which was set up to inquire into the maintenance of vegetable cover in New Zealand, with special reference to land erosion, made a number of interesting and valuable recommendations. Some of these at least have been acted upon. The department has carried out soil surveys in the North Island and is now working in the South Island. The Minister- expects that the results of the first stage in the attack on erosion in the high country will be available before the middle of the year, and he hopes soon to put in hand other investigations, especially those relating to farm management. Most persons think of soil erosion mainly as the result of floods. But, as the committee pointed out, there are actually five types of erosion including both natural and accelerated processes. Natural erosion is the result of the impact of climatic forces upon the land. The natural process is accelerated by clearance and cultivation, which rob the soil of much of its power of resistance. A deliberate return to primitive conditions is out of the question, since the cleared land must remain in production; and reafforestation is often impracticable. It is therefore necessary in many places to meet the threat of erosion by suitable methods of farm management, including the greater use of cattle, closer subdivision, the spelling of pastures, topdressing and resowing. Such

methods, of course, cannot succeed without an effective system of flood control, but flood control is not in itself a remedy for all forms of erosion. The problem is so wide and complex, involving the study of animal as well as plant life, soil conditions and climate, that it calls for expert planning on the widest possible basis. The Progress Leagues have every reason to insist that there shall be no relaxation in the Government’s efforts to overcome it, except in so far as those efforts are of necessity reduced by the war.