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 Eiver, 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 

 constantly 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 should 

 as yet engage in such operations as those which have been carried on in 

 France, 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 a 



