SAND DUNES

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 9817, 22 February 1936, Page 8

SAND DUNES

The Government is anxious to find employment for men on work that will be of national benefit, and it is to be hoped that the annual report of the authorities who control the Sheepowners’ Acknowledgment of Debt to British Seamen Fund will have careful attention. The spread of drifting sand has destroyed large areas of good land, and the menace exists in many parts of the Dominion. The work done at Flock House is, therefore, of general interest. There are 2000 acres of sand dune country on the estate, described as “ a wilderness of sand, interspersed with sparse vegetation, marram grass and other natural sand herbage/’ To-day 800 acres have been planted in trees with successful results and marram grass has also been planted extensively. Many hundreds of acres are said to have been made sufficiently stable to permit trees to be put in and the authorities report that the menace from drifting sand has been removed. At the same time valuable shelter has been provided, and the report expresses the hope that, in the interests of the Dominion, this practical example of treatment and planting of coastal sand dunes will be copied elsewhere. With the expert advice at its disposal the Government should be able to afford adequate protection to farmers whose properties are now threatened by drifting sand, and the plantations would be valuable assets in years to come. This is the class of work that needs no justification. The timber resources of the Dominion are being reduced steadily, and to-day much timber is being obtained from early plantations of imported varieties. The Dominion has, in its various afforestation areas, an asset of increasing value, although some of the initial operations were not designed on the most suitable lines. But when to the extension of these operations is added the value of the work of protecting good land now exposed to danger from drifting sand the case for consideration becomes much stronger. On the property controlled by the Flock House authorities there are plantations between two and twelve years old so that the period of experiment has long since passed, and it could confidently be expected that the success achieved there would follow an extension of the methods to other districts. New Zealand cannot afford to have rich lands buried under a waste of sand, and the value of the land protected, together with the value of the plantations, would constitute an economic return for the expenditure incurred.