WHEN NATURE GETS A CHANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 136, 6 December 1939, Page 17

WHEN NATURE GETS A CHANCE

A resident of Ngaio, in a letter to the Forest and Bird Protection Society, gives another reminder of Nature's willingness to re-establish native forests on land denuded by1 man if she is allowed to work in peace. "As one who landed in New Zealand as far back as "January, 1879, and; who has resided in this neighbourhood for now going on for ome 50 years (when the hills around were all covered in native bush)," the writer states, "may I be allowed to call your attention to a phase that seems to have escaped the notice of many? The grounds surrounding the old house here, built by the late John Chew, represent, of course, a very small part of the land here once held by the family. But for a considerable time I have noticed in various places, the springing up of native trees, principally lace-barks, ngaios, fuchsias, koromikos, karamus, and many others of which I do r-ot know the name, but which used in bygone days to be termed scrub or second growth. You will see in the hollows of the denuded hills around here, once thickly clad in bush, the same process going on, despite the fact of these places being unfenced and open to the inroads of cattle and sheep pasturing thereon. In one place on the hill opposite the Ngaio railway station, but to the south, a good growth of ngaios has smothered out and replaced such hardy exotics as gorse and broom. I feel sure^that if the hollows I have referred to were fenced off from sheep, and cattle, a manifest improvement would soon be apparent in the hills around, as " regards their carrying capacity, for this protective forest would greatly save them from further denudation." Similar new growth of native trees can be seen amowg the bracken and scrub on the hills of Queen Charlotte Sound. Some of this regeneration was spoilt last summer by careless fire-raising.