Volume 55 No 2 April 2007 - New Zealand Society of Soil Science

on a common parent material could be arranged into development sequences. Taylor named these soil
suites. They were neither mapping units nor classification units, but were a way of ordering soils by
stage of profile development and used to great effect in designing and conducting soil fertility
experiments. The soil report on Whangarei County was never completed although moderately largescale
soil maps were published. However, many concepts were incorporated into later studies and
some soils, for example the ‘egg cup’ podzol became widely known. Soil mapping began in Hawke’s
Bay with Harry A. Hughes and others mapping the Heretaunga Plains. This survey was principally to
determine the suitability of the soils for orchards. The soils formed on young river alluvium had
differing drainage limitations and there were saline soils on areas of the former Ahuriri lagoon, an area
uplifted during the 1931 Napier earthquake. The Heretaunga survey was followed by the survey of the
soils of mid-Hawke’s Bay by Ivan J. Pohlen, Charles Harris, Harry S. Gibbs and James D. Raeside.
This survey was completed in 1939, but publication was delayed by the war until 1947. This was a
comprehensive land-use survey, used by the Department of Agriculture to locate fertilizer trials and in
addition, it identified that soil erosion was a significant problem in mid-Hawke’s Bay.
The war years and a national soil inventory
During the early war years the Soil Survey Division undertook a general survey of the North Island’s
soil resources at a map compilation scale of four miles to the inch (1:253440). This was a co-operative
project, with the Extension Division of the Department of Agriculture. The survey rapidly produced
information on the soils of unmapped areas. These were linked together with the soil surveys of the
previously mapped areas, such as the Waikato, parts of Northland, Hawke’s Bay and western
Taranaki. The three survey parties were Dr Grange, C. Harris and Gibbs in Wellington, Pohlen,
Raeside and Gibbs in Hastings, and Taylor, Sutherland and Wright in Whangarei. They started
mapping in February 1940, finished in March 1941 and provisional soil maps were drawn and printed
in 1942.
Soils were mapped as soil sets, defined as “convenient groupings of soils with like profiles or
assemblages of profiles”. A comprehensive inventory of soil chemical data formed part of the survey
together with summaries of relevant agricultural information, from which were produced a series of
single factor maps. These were used during the war years to plan and set priorities for agriculture and
horticulture production as well as the distribution of scarce fertilizers. The army used the soil maps for
logistical planning.
A number of other soil surveys were completed during the war years. Gibbs surveyed Matakoa County
on the East Cape of North Island in 1940, and between 1943 and 1945 Westland in the South Island.
From 1943 to 1945 C. Harris surveyed the soils of Ellesmere County in Canterbury and between 1943
and 1946 Raeside surveyed the soils of Geraldine County. University students who assisted with the
Geraldine survey included John D. McCraw and Douglas S. Coumbs. Ian L. Baumgart joined this
team after leaving the New Zealand army and completing his university degree. Geraldine County
survey was one of several surveys undertaken to identify areas suitable for growing linen flax, a fiber
in short supply during the war, and used in the manufacture of fabric skins for military aircraft.
Wright, prior to his enlisting in the army, was involved in Southland conducting other soil surveys for
linen flax production. Gibbs and Birrell were part of a team identifying suitable sites for military
airfields throughout New Zealand.
Soil classification and the ordering of soil survey information
In the 1940s soil classification was at a formative state in New Zealand. In the North Island general
survey, the following categories were used to arrange the soils data: Recent soils, rendzina and
associated podzolic soils, yellow grey loams, primary podzolic soils, secondary podzolic soils, yellow
brown loams, brown granular loams and clays, red brown loams, meadow (or gley) soils, organic soils,
saline soils, and skeletal soils on steep hillsides. Many of the categories were ordered into young,
immature, semimature, later semimature, submature and mature stages of development. The soils
formed on volcanic ash and sediments derived from volcanic ash, which included the primary podzolic
soils, yellow brown loams and brown granular loams and clays, were grouped into soil suites. These
were named and identified by the soil-forming volcanic ashes previously defined by Grange and
Taylor such as the Taupo, Mairoa and Tirau suites. The skeletal soils included a diverse collection of
soils on steep hill country that were either unoccupied rangeland, native forests or unsuited to semiintensive
farming at the time.
63