FOREST-CONSCIOUS MAORIS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 94, 22 April 1933, Page 10

FOREST-CONSCIOUS MAORIS

European commercialisation recently "convßrted" a number of kauri trees not far from Auckland, but it is reported that a Maori landowner -further north, near "Whangaroa, "adopted a very reasonable attitude" when the Minister of Lands suggested to him that he should exchange some near-highway kauri trees for equivalent kauri-bearing Crown land in another location. The arrangement was not finalised, and its merits are. not known in detail, but the principle is sound, and lias been applied to the new coastal route from Hicks Bay to Opotiki, where the pohutukawas and other native growth- on Maori-owned land are scenically important. Here, again, the attitude of the Maori owners has been described as co-operative. The preservation of native bush in scenic positions is a Cultural movement, which the Maori owner in the North Island is in a special position to help. He,> along with the Crown, is also concerned, as owner, in tho maintenance of protection forests—^utility as well as culturtf—on the high country. In fact, he is an ally whose active help all friends of forestry would welcome.