DRAINING WITH DYNAMITE.

Waipa Post, Volume III, Issue 111, 17 May 1912, Page 4

DRAINING WITH DYNAMITE.

EXPERIMENTS IN WESTLAND

The use of dynamite or similar explosive for cultivating and draining the ground has been talked of a, good deal in America, and, under some conditions, the system certainly seems to have succeeded. A representative of the Christchurch Press recently learned from a West Coast resident that the New Zealand Department of Agriculture has been

carrying out experiments with explosives on the notorious " Pakihi " soils of Westland, with a view to inducing drainage in

these water-logged areas. This " Pakihi " soil covers an area estimated to be over 100,000 acres, and up to the present it has been

found impossible to do very much with the land, which is chiefly Crown property. "Pakihi" is a Maori word signifying an opening or clearing free from forest, which describes the appearance of the locality fairly well. The land consists of sour, swampy terraces, which support merely such un.ksirable vegetation as rushes, fern, moss, and

plants usually associated with water-logged ground, and, as may be imagined, it is practically useless, either for growing crops or for carrying stock. Mr B. C. Aston, the Department's agricultural chemist, in describing this area of country, expresses th» opinion that the land could be easily drained, but so far it has not proved so easy as was imagined. The top soil is retentive and closely packed, and overlies sand and a boulder or cement bottom. Also iron pan is frequently met with at a depth of two to three feet. One or two attempts to burn off the rushes and sow grass seed have proved disappointing, but on the drier

portions danthonia occurs, though clovers will not thrive. The ironpan mentioned above is impermeable to water, and no hope of successful drainage operations could be held out unless this pan was broken up permanently.

Apparently it was with this object in view that the dynamiting experiments have been carried out by the Agricultural Department, though, as the officials of the Department have to conform to the policy of secrecy imposed upon them by the Minister for Agriculture, full details are not available. The informant of the Press states that some members of the Department

recently made a journey over to a place about four miles from Hokitika, with a view to carrying out the blasting operations. A line of country was marked out, and small holes bored at short

intervals apart. Plugs of explosive were placed at the bottom of each of the borings. The charges were fired simultaneously The combined discharge of such a large quantity of explosive resulted in a considerable disruption of the top soil, but it is believed that the consistency and tenaciousness of the iron-pan,

which was particularly bad in this locality, very successfully resisted the effects of the dynamite. The actual success, or otherwise, of these experiments will not be. known until the official report is published.