SAND-DRIFT PROBLEM IN NEW SOUTH WALES. . 93 
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a work, and we forget to provide for,adequate maintenance. 
Adequate maintenance in the matter of sand-drift preven- 
tion is the life-blood of the whole enterprise. All these 
sand-drift areas should be placed under the control of the 
Forest Department, which should have a special staff of 
officers to deal with reclamation matters, (including such 
works as the reclamation of river banks, see this Journal 
Vol. xxxvi., p. 107). All areas under treatment should be 
regularly visited and reported upon, a printed schedule of 
questions being answered by the inspecting officer periodi- 
cally. 
(1) Protection against fire.—This is a matter of very 
great importance. Our bush-fires are, in some years, very 
serious agents of destruction, and it is not easy to lay 
down useful rules to cope with them. As regards the 
coastal plantings on sand-dunes, the making of fires should 
be prohibited under heavy penalties. In many places, the 
plantations will be naturally protected by the heathy 
country which runs along the coast line. 
(2) Fencing often necessary.—And now I make a few 
recommendations applicable to planted sand-drifts in the 
vicinity of large centres of population. At one sand-drift 
reclaimed by the Government, I have seen horses, cattle, 
and human beings breaking down the sand banks. The 
caretaker slopes the sand, plants grass, etc., upon it; cattle 
tear out the grass, bring down the sand in large masses, 
and consequently destroy the surface with their hoofs. 
Horses run along the shore for exercise, and their owners 
sometimes put them on the slopes, with. a result most 
disastrous to the reclamation. People have free access to 
these sandy slopes facing the ocean; they break them 
down, and with cattle, horses, dogs, and human beings, it 
is a wonder to me that thereis any growth on these places 
at all. There is but one remedy, and that is the rigorous 
