The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1936. THE BUSH AND THE FISH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 273, 17 November 1936, Page 6

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1936. THE BUSH AND THE FISH.

For the cause that laclcs assistance, For the tcror.g that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that ice can do.

Those New Zealanders who forbears have tried to arouse the national conscience by pointing to the inevitable results of the continued needless destruction of native bush will derive both satisfaction and amusement from reading of a meeting of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society. The secretary of that organisation, Mr. A. J. Seed, is an anglei of 40 years' experience, and he told the meeting that the fishing in the streams of the Wellington province was- not as good as it used to be. In that deterioration he thought that "floods were the greatest factor."

Tlie only thing that would bring the fish hack to some streams (Mr. Seed said) was reafforestation, not only of the banks of the streams, but also of the watersheds. That would do more to restore fishing than all the liberations, Evei} fisherman should be an ardent forester for that reason. Reafforestation would take many years, as the streams were now in many cases only sluices for floods and wastes of shingle.

No doubt it is all true, but it is not the whole truth, or even an important part of the truth. How comes it that reafforestation is needed? Are floods undesirable merely because they affect the quality of the fishing"? What of the land which borders the fishing streams'? No doubt Mr. Seed did not forget these larger aspects of the problem, but on the occasion of his remarks perhaps he did not feel it incumbent upon him to mention them. He might, however, have mentioned, in passing, that the conditions to which he drew attention were man-made conditions, and that man continues to act in such a way as to make it certain that similar conditions will be noticed in other parts of the Dominion in the future. But on the whole Mr. Seed's remarks are to be welcomed. The desire to improve the fishing is not the strongest motive for taking steps to prevent floods in the future, but it is one motive, and if, in consequence of the help of the acclimatisation societies, the land benefits, though only, as it were, incidentally, something will have been gained.

That the present Government is aware of the need to prevent any further avoidable destruction of native bush there have been some indications, the latest being the announcement by the Minister of Public Works of a warning to the employees of his Department. Commendable though it is, this warning can have only a limited application. Much more necessary is resolute action to prevent the conditions described by the Forest and Bird Protection Society /in an article published in the "Star" yesterday. The Society alleges, briefly, that "the heart of the King Country, . . . broken country that should never have been stripped of forest, has been partly denuded of the greater part of its valuable forests, and the work of removal without replacement goes on." Such an allegation, supported with some detail, demands a prompt reply from the Minister of Forests, who has a splendid opportunity to make an enduring name for himself as the man who did more than, pay lip service to the ideal of conserving our natural heritage.