Large Population

Fiji Cannot Support Large Population Plus Soil Erosion New Governor Sounds Grim Warning

From Our Own Correspondent.

Suva, Nov. 30.

lies ahead of Fiji unless ” soil erosion is stopped and soil conservation is drastically extended.

Fhis was the gist of an emphatic varning given by the Governor (Sir Donald Garvey) in his opening iddress at the Budget session of the legislative Council on November 28.

Sir Ronald said: “I feel I must in brm this council immediately how tartled and horrified I have been to ee, almost everywhere, the growing igns of serious soil erosion. I know bat we have a team doing excellent oil conservation work in the Nadi asin, but this is not enough. While 'e talk with alarm about the grow ig population we are unwittingly etching the one means by which e can support it slip away before nr eyes. Fiji’s true capital asset is s good earth; and in my view it ust be preserved at all cost.”

The Governor’s statement is a re funding justification of the agitation a limited number of people who •r years have been asking in the cal press for adequate and far aching soil conservation measures, ften in the past this agitation has :en met by platitudinous official atements to the effect that while soil osion is undoubtedly going on in me areas, it is not yet anything to arrant startling or sensational warn g statements. But in the opinion the new Governor it is, most aphatically, just that.

Sir Ronald told the Legislative )uncil: “I declare to you to-day that could not administer this Colony

with a clear conscience if 1 did not press, with all the vigour that I can command, for a considerable expansion of our soil conservation measures. „ 1 have been very glad to learn, he continued, “that draft legislation is m preparation to deal in its widest aspects with the whole question of land use.

Reverting to the overwhelming evidence of serious soil erosion in Viti Levu, he said: “What I have seen from the air has filled me with dismay, for the damage done by faulty cultivation is probably small compared with the almost irreparable

damage done by savannah and bush fires. Not only does this type jf burning bring soil erosion in its train but it lays the foundation for greater e yih in the form of dried-up streams. diminishing water supplies and in its most aggravated phase, an interfer ence with seasonal rainfall itself We have only to consider the recent drought to realise how serious that can become, especially on the north western side of Viti Levu.”

He said that education to prevent forest fires and to aid soil conserva tion must be given in all the schools and he called for extensive tree planting (including the observance of

Arbor Day annually) to counter the tragic destruction of natural forest by fire.

Lastly, Sir Ronald pointed out that there appeared to be fairly large areas in north-western Viti Levu which could be reclaimed from the sea. By this means, he said, “we could re capture some of the soil that is now

slipping away from us.”

Contour Ploughing

Soil conservation was also dis cussed, some days earlier, by the Director of Agriculture, jfrr. C.

Harvey, in the course of a talk to the Fiji Society.

“Has the land occupier the right

to destroy the land, or is the land of such fundamental importance that it should be protected by law?” he asked.

For several years many Indian farmers had opposed soil conserva tion measures, even to the extent of ploughing out the contour-lines pains takingly put in for them by officers of the Agriculture Department. Now, however, the conservation campaign is showing signs of success—mainly because the farmers are on the way to realising that the result of soil erosion is low yields.