92 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
results have followed these efforts in each instance. In France, especially, 
operations were carried on upon a large scale, under the direction of 
Bremontier, the system which he used being very much the same as one 
independently adopted in Denmark at about the same time. Bremontier’s 
efforts were crowned with special success, owing in some measure to the nature 
of the climate, but chiefly to the liberal assistance which he received from 
Government, which placed large sums at his command in aid of the work. 
The area of dunes which has been secured from drifting and converted into 
valuable plantations by his method, exceeds 100,000 acres, now yielding a 
large annual revenue in turpentine and resin, independently of the value of 
the timber from which these are produced, whilst, as a further and more 
important result of his labours, the fixture of these sands has saved a much 
larger area of valuable country from the destruction with which it was 
threatened. 
In the neighbourhood of Cape Breton, another process is successfully 
employed, both for preventing the drifting of the sand and for rendering the 
surface directly productive. The method there adopted consists of planting 
vineyards upon the dunes, the vines being protected by hedges of Erica 
scoparia, so disposed as to divide the vineyard into rectangular spaces of 
forty or fifty feet square. The same heath would grow luxuriantly on our 
West Coast dunes, and there are extensive areas amongst them, especially 
to the north of the Rangitikei River, which appear to me to be admirably 
adapted for the cultivation of the vine in the manner used at Cape Breton. 
The vines there are said to thrive admirably, and the grapes to be amongst 
the best grown in France. Dunes are, it must be remembered, favourable 
for the growth of vines, fresh sea-sand being regularly employed, in the 
west of France, as a manure for the vine, alternately with ordinary manure, 
with the advantage that, as the surface of the vineyard is by this means 
constantiy raised, the vines as constantly throw out fresh roots and thus 
promote a vigorous upper growth. 
Coming back to our West Coast dunes, it seems clear that if the obser- 
vations made by Mr. Hadfield be accurate, as applied to the district between 
the Otaki and the Ohau, there can be little doubt that similar results are 
taking place further to the northward, where nearly the whole of the coast 
dunes are included in sheep and cattle runs. The revenue derived from 
the occupation of such tracts of country by pastoral tenants, cannot pos- 
sibly compensate for the injury which,will be done by the inland advance 
of the sand, and although it may not be expedient that Government shoul 
as yet engage in such operations as those which have been carried on if 
rance, it is in the highest degree important that it should put a stop to 
further interference with the surface of the dunes, and thus allow them & 
