OUR NATIONAL PARKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 40, 16 February 1929, Page 12

OUR NATIONAL PARKS.

PLAYGROUNDS OF THEPLCPLc THREE MILLION ACLLJ OP RESERVES. I PKOIiLKMX OF CONSLKV ATIOW \ (By J.C.) j The establishment of a National Parka Conservation Board is one of the ideaU of that energetic Auckland laxly the New Zealand Tourist League. Brief reference to the subject is made in the latest report of the League, preside,! over by Mr. (J. M. Fowhl-. and probably something will be heard of the suggestion when the Dominion'- scenic re-orves are under discussion in Parliament. Last year the (Government put through a. Public Domains, Reserves and National] Parks Act. It was mainly a eonsoli dated machinery measure, and though the League again reminded the Minister of Lands of its proposal for a comprehensive National Parks Conservation Board the Minister wa-s of the opinion, that this was not the appropriate mea•: sure in which to deal with such a subject. | At present the Department of Lands, exercises a general control over the reserves and parks, with the exception! of those, such as the Tongariro National; Park, which are under the care of special I boards. The Department carries out itsi duties with great care and fidelity to! the national interests, and it has enlisted. Wherever possible the sympathetic atten- j tion of local bodies and resident, honorary rangers. The Scenery Preservat ion Board, which sits periodically to) deal with areas of scenic and historic] interest, consists of two officers of the Lands and Survey Department—the' Surveyor-General is chairman—and tinheads of the Tourist Department and the Native Department. j

It may be that the concentration of all the national properties involved under one body would be an improvement; if this were done it would of necessity take in tho sanctuaries which I described in a previous article, some of which are administered by one department and some by another. It would also be desirable to remove certain forest areas for the control of the State Forest Service and place them under the board. VVaipoua Forest, for one thing, should be proclaimed a sanctuary, and removed from the list of reserves which are liable to be treated as commercial forests. Tbe Dominion's Park Areas.

By comparison with much greater countries New Zealand is quite well provided with national parks. Our total area of tho reserves for scenery and climatic purposes and for historical interest is approximately three and aquarter million acres. The Lands Department gives me the figures as follows: Acres. Toiurnriro National Park .... 149.470 Ksmont Mountain Purk .... 7U.000 Hooker Glacier Keserve. Southern Alps 38.000 Tanman Park. .Southern Alps 07.000 Arthur's Pass loO.uoo Otirn Gorge 17,000 Fionlland National Park. ... 2,260,00(1 2.790,470 To this total may be added the various scenic, climatic and historical reserves in tho Dominion, numbering over eight hundred, with an area of 4.54,127 acres. The aggregate of all these National parks and reserves is therefore 3.250,5Q7 acres.

The Egmont Forest. In the National parks above listed there is every variety of landscape glory that our island Dominion contains. Besides the noble mountains rising from the circular area of the Taranaki Park thenis the most beautiful and luxuriant of rain forests in the North Island; a forest also of enormous economic value as the source and protection of scores of streams flowing down through the pastoral plains. Southern Alpine Reserves. Crossing to the South, we find the £ieat scenic railway that connects Canterbury and Wcstland penetrating a mountain region rich in Alpine flora. The Arthur's Pass-Otira park areas take in a liberal belt of the country, a great nature-study park of the future, and a preat climbing ground also, for here is the glaciated peak of Mount Kolleston. with the sources of the Wahnakariri and other strong mountain torrents; and on the western slope there is a gorgeous rata forest. Tlowery Glens of Aorangi.

Passing on to the Aorangi regions, the heart of the Southern Alps, there are thousand* of acres of wild rock gardenr, in the valleys of the Hooker and the Tasman. The Hooker, in particular, is a wonderfully lovely place in December and January, when the Alpine blossoms', white, yellow and blue, cover the mor-aine-strewn glen through which a.clear blue stream cenies dancing down to join the turbid glacier river. The bird life in these Alpine parks is of uncommon interest. Unfortunately, the most interesting bird of all, the kea parrot, which used to go hopping over the glaciers after climbers, and amusing itself by sliding down the iron-roofed huts, is being slaughtered for the sake of 5/ head-money. The sheepowners, not content with killing their enemy on their runs, have made war on it in the State mountain reserves. The exact degree of the kea's guilt as a sheepkiller is still a moot point. In the mountain land he is certainly guiltless of offence, and is a very welcome sight to the high climber. It seems to me carrying the vendetta beyond bounds to follow up and butcher the kea in places which should be a sanctuary for all native feathered life. The Needs of Auckland Province.

It will be noticed that in the list 1 have given there is not one reserve classed as a national park in the Auckland provincial district. <In one sense this is perhaps indirect testimony to the excellence of Auckland's soil. We have here no regions of ice and snow, glaciers and mountain torrents; no immense areas of all but impenetrable gorge ahd Alp and forest. We have our thermal regions, with their geysers and hot springs, lakes and steaming valleys, scattered over a hundred miles of country; but these come into a somewhat different category. The solitary reserve styled a park is the Trounson Kauri Forest, in North Auckland. The Tonga - riro National Park is officially in the Wellington land district. Waipoua as a Sanctuary.

I am most strongly of opinion that the Waipoua Kauri Forest should be proclaimed a sanctuary and a national park, and so rescued for all time from the possibility of being exploited as a commercial forest. By all means regenerate the forest on other kauri areas and go ahead with the planting of exotic trees for timber supply, but save Waipoua as a permanent tree museum, a place where the kauri may be seen In its primeval condition, a forest which may go en reproducing itself for cen-

• . ■ .'.-.. it.-.. .... i... - > ii., ,i in .■■'.'< •■ .' " I-.-.H n:.-. .;■...'"■'. /.' • l.rlci.il i,,; ~.• -'..!'-■'' i i wedge .si; 11 ii . . - .'... ;i-c 1., i. .' i'-i ;■ ■il li.i .:. N.i i j.. k-. j Th? Urcv::s :!:,; .ifi-.dj. A '••'! - ! i "a i: - | •> i>> i i.. i ic i \ ■••■■.; [ ( oui.tr \ is pes I ci I;. ;; la;.; :l by II i :;■- for the purjio-es of a ni, '< r,.,l : nk. I'fltfre is a stron;: ic.-'iti-.: aiming :V.>-e I who have tr.iveih'il that territory tint the greater part oj the f>re.-;.d rang"between the lu-mlw at ;ms. t .f the. W'uakatune Liver mid the chores of Lake Waikiu enn'iUla —ii.: n|< i >*• -eeu ;■..- .-I .Vale !e-.-r\e fur climatic :' n 1 -i-eiiie re.i -nil-. The l!lli:i!:i'! K.-'il-and il~ lateral -titti--. .im! that ■j'c.it forest \ il.h'tie - !■> tile iio',-j and v..-' of the bike, an I ;i|-u 1 lit- ;'... . -t ;ti if. 1 Lake Wnikarc-jti. v. ill never b« of o e for set t b-iiH ut. The =ame remark ap : pl : e- t" much "I the Im_'li co'iulM lie.:>•.•;■ Tbe liangitaiki and Whaka'ane plain-. I believe tlie ijiie->tioii i I arrim''- . iiiu for the purchase and roerva tion of the- fluiarail and adjacent c>;;:i try is now under ollicial con-jidorat' nt: ue shall hear more about it presently. Pirongia Mountain.

One other typical desirable reservation occurs to me. This js Pirongia, the forest-topped mountain overlord of the Waipa VulJey. The Pirongia Range never should have been i-trippi-d of itforest. My memories of the beautiful mountain back to a time, not very remote, when the bush came low down on the mountain side, within a few hundred feet of the Waipa Kiver level. Clearing and'burning should never have been permitted to go above the fern belt. The Waipa Valley people are only now beginning to recognise the immense value of the .'lOftflft range as u source of water supply. Te Awamutu briii«r« its town water twelve miles from n Pirongia stream. A .part of the mountain is reserved, but • I hope to see a movement get going for the. purpose of obtaining the whole of it for climatic and water-supply tides'. Once set aside as a national park, and the work of reafforesting the range begun. Pirongia will be to the surrounding country what Kgmont is to Taranaki Province—its mountain protector and benefactor. But the good work should be. begun now. Every year sees more forest chopped or burned awav.