_The Evening Post_, 7 April 1925:
DRIFTING SAND
FORESTRY OFFICERS INSPECT
COMBATING RELENTLESS
ADVANCE.
Good agricultural #land in various parts of the Dominion is being seriously threatened by the continuous and unrelenting drift of sand, and although much has been done by the State Forestry Service… to combat this, further experimental work is at present being carried out…. Altogether there are 92,000 acres [37K ha] of dune country in the #Wellington area, and 183,000 acres [74K ha] in the #Auckland district.
The menace… has become manifest particularly along the coast of the North Island between Wellington and New Plymouth, and the north coast of Auckland…
The theory advanced for the spread of the sand dune country is that before the advent of the European population…, the greater part of the sandy land was more or less stable, and Dr. L. #Cockayne, hon. botanist to the Department, declares that over-grazing and injudicious stock of land has caused it to become loose.
… settlers along the coast… refuted this suggestion…
As the waste sandy country is privately owned, very little action is being taken…, but… the Government, by… the Sand Drift Act… has power to undertake the work itself.
…
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19250407.2.141