"TIME HAS COME FOR STOCK-TAKING ”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 39, 16 February 1939, Page 6

"TIME HAS COME FOR STOCK-TAKING ”

DETERIORATION OF LAND DUE TO NATURAL CAUSES The opinion that most of the deterioration of land occurring in New Zealand is due tc natural causes and not to bad Lirming methods was expressed yesterday at Wanganui by Mr. A. F. Waters, Commissioner of Crown Lands, New Plymouth, who attended a conference of county council representatives called to discuss the problem of deterioration. Mr. Waters made it clear that he was expressing nis own opinion and not that of his department. He said that he had recently made an extensive tour of Taranaki, and had come to a conclusion that the problem of flood damage was not nearly so great as the natural deterioration of land. He referred to some of the steep inland country which, denuded of bush, had slipped, leaving bare rocks and papa. When the bush in New Zealand was first felled, the leaf mould of the forest was a boon to the settlers, but with heavy rain falling on the naked hills that class of soil was gradually washed from the slopes down into the valleys and carried away. The hills were left as bare sandstone and papa on whTch second growth developed.

With such agency at work he doubted whether even a scientist could find a remedy. He considered that a commission, one which was not too unwieldy, might well be set up for the purpose of going into the question of deteriorated and marginal lands. The time had certainly come for a stock-taking.