LAND UTILISATION

Timaru Herald, Volume CL, Issue 22043, 16 August 1941, Page 4

LAND UTILISATION

South Canterbury Needs Outlined Discussion In House (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, August 15. During the discussion on the Lands and Survey Department estimates in the House, the Rev. Clyde Can (Labour, Timaru) said that some of the Crown lands in South Canterbury were infested with gorse and blackberry. He made a plea for afforestation work on them and also for a survey to be made of the higher lands to conserve them and prevent further erosion. Mr Carr said he had endeavoured to impress on previous Ministers of Land the rgent necessity for afforestation in these reas, bht apparently the Department's polk was that, unless the area was about 5000 acres, it was not regarded as an economic proposition from the forestry point of view. However, he would point out there were large numbers of areas of Crown land in close proximity, which in the aggreg L e would constitute an economic proposition. Referring to erosion in the higher lands, Mr Carr said it seemed to him that it would be a fine gesture on the Department s part, and a very wise move, if it would cause a survey to be made. The Acting Minister of Lands (Hon. J. G. Barclay) had raised the question of fire risk in the South Island, Mr Carr said. The areas he had mentioned certainly were dry in the summer, but he did not think there would be any greater danger in the case of forests than now with the land growing gorse, scrub, blackberry and broom. Also, there were modem ways of dealing with fire risks. In the pumice areas in the north it was very dry in the summer. Mr T. D. Burnett (National, Temuka later referred to abandoned homesteads which, he said, were particularly noticeable in South Canterbury. This was due to the regrouping of areas, but while the regrouping was justified in some cases, he thought it could be overdone. Many fine homesteads had been abandoned. Mr Barclay asked if it was the farms or the homes that had been abandoned. Mr Burnett said he was referring to the abandonment of homes through the regrouping of small areas. He thought that, rather than waste such homes, an effort should be made to reconditon the farms so that they would support families. It would be better to let them at a peppercorn rental than to leave the homes unoccupied. In one district 18 hov s alone hajj been abandoned In this way.