SAVE THE FOREST.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 206, 30 August 1921, Page 4

SAVE THE FOREST.

A PLEA FOB THE UKEWEKA. MR. ELSDON BEST'S WARNING. A strong protest against the indiscriminate deforestation of th« Urewera which is to be opened up 'by the Government ac soon as the question of titles is settled with the Maori owners, was made -by Mr. ELsdon Best, who kilbwe tlie country from end to e-nd. He lived, •for many years not far from RuatahuEa studying the peculiar customs of the "Children of the Mist"—-the natives still point out the pretty little slab-whare with its crimson rambler rosea climbing over the roof, which "Peihiti"' occupied—and made a memoraWe trek through to Lake Waikaremoana. aver the lofty Huhirau Range, snow-covered at the time, in search of legends and folk-lore, the record of which is still a classic. Mr. Best says the country was vory steep, overlaid by pumice on which is about six indies of humus. "You fell the bush and grass it. It grows magnificently .for three years or so. The first and second year you Uave cocksfoot higher than your knee. About a year or so later it gets shorter, and finally dies out, and the land grows a crop of rubbish. There is no body in the sort; an,l not only that, the underlying pumice makes the whole thing so friable Mat the stock tear it off the face of the earth. Most of the country is veryrough, and a lot of it should never be deforested. We must preserve a lot of our bush or our climate is going to suffer, and the rougji country like the Urewera, is the part we shouM keeip intact as far as the forest is concerned, there is no doubt, in my opinion, that New Zealand will sooner or later have to grow ncr own timber entirelyjudging from what i s taking plage *in other parts of the world. Such country as the- l.Vewcra is natural forest country—and much of it suitable for nothin<* else." ■ °