Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 1914. NATURE'S HERITAGE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIII, Issue 8820, 17 March 1914, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 1914. NATURE'S HERITAGE.

Tlie appeal of the New Zealand Forest and Bird Protection Society should meet with very hearty response. Briefly, the object of-the Society is to "protect and preserve the; native wild birds, and the existing- reserves which have been set aside in order to preserve areas of our. native vegetation, and to secure, out of the remaining forest lands, re^ serves in districts ; where they do not already exist." Truly a most laudable ambition, and one that >. if much longer delayed, will be incapable of achievement. It is not creditable to the people of this country that the destruction of the beautiful huia has been allowed to continue so ruthlessly that a rumour that a pair has been sighted in some remote district in the North Island is considered of '•■ sufficient public interest that the news is telegraphed throughout the whole Dominion. There is a tendency to put most of the blame for the destruction of native birds on the shoulders of the settlers who are compelled to fall the bush which is their natural haunt; but always the material needs of the community must take precedence of sentiment, however wprthy may be the inspiration. In reality, however, the. blame, for the decimation of the birds=^for that is what it actually amounts to—lies at the door or the pot- | hunters and the acclimatisation societies who allow them to slau,gl).ter TOtjl they have become satiated or till there are no birds left—which is the more likely happening of the two. One need only refer to the pictures in the Few Zealand illustrated papers shortly after the,opening of the shooting season/ in any year during the past 20 years to find illustrations of the 'kind of bird-' I slaughter that is dignified by the, name of "sport." These pictures will show that the birds are butchered to make a holiday for hundreds of men during the opening days of the season, and presumably the object of publication is to attract to our shores hundreds of other sportsmen with the lust for killing. In some parts of the Auckland Province a "bag" of 200 to 300 ducks to a couple of guns, or a similar number of native pigeons, is not considered exceptional, and any society that can influence legislation to limit such wholesale and unnecessary killing deserves well of the public. In most bush districts where the burn-off has been properly carried out there exist sanctuaries of bush along the highest ridges, and .these would harbour the remnants of bush birds if they were not molested. So far as the preservation of existing reserves is concerned and the securing of others, the Society is faced with the everpresent problem of preventing, fire from reaching these oases. In some portions of the Dominion there are areas designated State forests, within which there are other areas, withheld . from the shwmiller. It is hopeless-to expect that these will escape destruction by fire> though settlers may do all that is' humanly possible to prevent it. It would therefore seem that the Society's efforts will have to be confined to the bush in localities that are not suitable for close settlement. There are many of the beauty spots, ,but the hand of the vandal is visible even in many remote from the haunts of men. No greater object-lesson in the beauty and attractiveness of arboriculture is provided in New Zealand than is to be found in the Ashburton County, where many thousands of acres of what formerly was. practically a treeless plain have been converted' into a "sniiling landscape" with a glorious wealth, of trees providinggrateful shade and shelter „ for man and beast. Nature study is provided for in Our public schools, but it is taught mostly in the abstract. The Forest and Bird Protection Society's mission provides .an opportunity for the inculcation of a love for and appreciation of all that is beautiful and attractive in Nature/ and if the generation now growing up is trained on these lines it will be able to avoid the sins of omission and commission its . predecessors must plead guilty-to. i