NATURE—AND MAN.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LVI, Issue 5991, 3 May 1935, Page 4

NATURE—AND MAN.

ANOTHER GOOD FRIEND.

UAIDY QAttiWAY WILL BBUP.

(Edited by Leo. Fanning)'.

Belfore Lady Gahvay left England sha hiaidl read' muichi ajbouit New Zeafendf® forests and 1 birds, and sihe had an) eagerness to see them. Iti is already evi'd'enit -thiait her Excellency •will be ,a very Mpfui supporter of tihel id'ealls of the Forest and Bind Protection Society, Horticultural SoiCieitleis <aodi simitar, organisations. Their Excellencies' children are also waimfy interested! in; bird and' plant life. -Lady Galway. has spciken regreitifuly of "improvements'' which have •marred the [beauty o;f many Janctercapes im Einigllaand', and she is hopeful 'tlhiait. the spoilers' hands will) not do saimiillair mischief here. Happily her Excellency will have opportunities to 'assist in checking vandalism. YEAIRNOONIG FOR BiEAiTJiTY. •Al pfeasadfc passage from "Down tihe Garden Path" (Beverley 'Nichols): "Every poor main's garden, in a ciity, is a sweet; font pitiful illustration of some, fainit striving after beauty, it shows hi's feeble groping for freedom—the freedom which he sees in even the fai'niteat -and 1 weakest caprice, of the vine that reaches so weakly, iso paimfully to'wards Ms Ibedlrooim window. In these flowery prisons ihe> foiicfe ai release—sees. 1 visitors in window box —escapes even, ibeneaitih fchei cliisfaearitenedl leaves that struggle -up i ! n a solitary flawei'r pot. I think that ivolllhlnig is so sad inior yet so strangely inspiriting- ais the sight, in dark London alleys, of tlfaose greeni patches which are 'the nearest approach that some men will ever make to tihe fields so far away."

In 'Cowtrais't wiltihi the limited oppor tunlties otf pooir d'oflfk of London to

enijoy beauty of Nature, people of Neiw Zealand) are indeed: fortunate stall, despite havoc of (the pastt. Consider, for example,, this passage from "Yesterdays ra iMaorilaaid 7 ' hy Andrea® ißeischek■

"In this primeval paraclii.se (on ; an isle of Hauraiki ' Gulf) I felt, tihe windows .of my soul! were opened, Nature's wonderful) anan'tfe lay spread out before me; living things, tihe -connection and coherence of the manifold! works of God'. That Might, lying 'there, I experienced a sense of shamej which those who swear by COTi'Mis-alfcion will aentalnly. fail to understand, th'at) civilised man cam be the worst vermin, of the whole earth. IFor wherever he comes, he destroy© the wonderful) equipoise of Niatare, and much as hie bothers himself with his sot-called ants 1 , he is not ©yen capabfe of re®airing tire damage

fee causes. As if Am symipaitihy wiltft my thoughts, about three l o'clock a comet, appeared! ini the siky, its long , 'tail glowing with pallid light." I Since those wordls were written 1 , more than half a century ago, many beauty-spotis l otf Neiw Zealand 1 halve ibeeni .marred) by mam —ami 1 the desecration 1 continues. SAVE ENOUGH 0!F THE FOREST FIRIDMEiVAIL. iWiltibi those: WoTdbi otf. SReischek conh si'der this- comment off Robert, Marshall in a .recent issue of "American Forests" "The critical 1 problem! in forest recreation to-day i>s not to lay out ait tractive gollf links .among tihei trees, , nor to const met wel'li graded) Mg;h----1 ways which) scar the scenery a li! title less thian usual, nor to beaiuti'fy the j roadsides, important as such a oonI S'ideratiloin may be. The critical problem ils to 'save the 1 .rapidly disappearing primitive. Every year sees isevenail! of our. fc'vv remainiing forest •wiil'dem-ess areas invaded by roads. Where twenty-five yean-® ago there were more than, owe' hundred tracts ,o'f roadless forest, wiltfb at least one : million l acres* in them', tocDay there j remain- hut thirty with even ai quarter j oif a mi'M'om acres'. SimiTarly, the tracts of virgin timber have been so depleted 'tihaif to-day there are cern tain very beautiful! forest types in which not a -stogie primeval! area of more than. ; a few hundred aeries remains." Similtar u,ntn>ecesisary roadiing in New Zealand has .already given much ■oauise for grief to lovers of the forests. •STIEWARiT ISLAND KIWIS. In "iMuttoin Birds and Other Birds" Mr (H. iGuthriie-lSimith makes siome inr terestii'ng remarks o-n kSwiis oif Stewant Island. ''I helieve," he writes, "that during d'ay-tdme the Stewart Js>!land ikiwil not infrequently moves abroad 'or ; at a.ny rate Me® out in covert; and, speaking" generally, that the bird' is less strictly nocturnal .in its -habits according to observers,, than are other breeds of Apteryx. "These southern forest®, it must he remembered, in spiiite of their less tropical jungle growth,- are on the whole d'arker than those of the north.. (Some off the 1 , filtmy ferns for instance , species that Ifuxurdiatei im shadow, deillifbenateliy to these southern woods expos© their leaves to light, one-' to especial, noticeably,, for this purpose, twisting its frond's on it/he 'diark delicate stripes l . This lesser average degree of 'light iis 'owing tio the greyer sky, and to the comparative sunltessnesis of the climate; so 'th'at gloomy \veatiher during the short winter dlays, caniniot he far different, from bright anights ill! summer, and' thi® kiwi of southernmost range, may have thus grown accustomed to travel and feed in either Might," THE SKUA—'A BSUICiGA'NEER BIRD. The skua, a pirate tonong birdls heiljps' them toi carry cut the liaw of "survival of the fittest." 'The l skua certainly compels various smaller species—a-nd l event l!arger®bnes— to be ever ora thel alert against its. raid's 1 . For example,, the big albatross, nesting on Homely isles of the southern ocean, has to be wary otf IMir Skua. Here i© an observation of Andreas 'Reischek .on am isleit where many p.airs oif 'allbatmss had their homes.

"In most cases'," he wrote, "I found! the femail'e' on the nes't, the male bird standing close l near ta hex, and occasionally feeding her, Sometimes ithe mate relievedi the l female, (but they never "both leave the nest until the young" one ®s able to defend ilfcsellf against the skua gull'. White taking the measurements 1 of the first nest •I 'Game to, I Uaidj down the egg beside me, wheal a> skua darted) ait i't and destroyed) it. They were bo bold that they frequently came close enough for me to hit them with a stick,"