The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, JULY 5th, 1939 THE GOOD EARTH

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 32, 5 July 1939, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays , Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, JULY sth, 1939 THE GOOD EARTH

THE Minister of Lands, who 'is also Commissioner of Forests, is to be congratulated on his realisation of the gravity of the situation in New Zealand, in regard to soil erosion and the magnitude of the effort which should be made to save New Zealand for New ZeaJanders. The initial need' is, however, that the public sHould be told the actual facts in order that they will be the better able to realise the gravity of the position and thus the more readily support any worth-while steps—whatever the magnitude—which will have to be taken, to make any/ possible amende for disastrous blunders of the past in the maltreatment of forests. Even if_the claim that the remnant of native forest amounted to about twelve million acres was true, there is the official admission that the whole of the aggregate area is not bush-cover-<id. Such a remnant is far from sufficient for the protection of agricultural and pastoral soils from disastrous erosion, due to Qxcess/ve floods and for the maintenance of equable climatic conditions. If then the top soil, which gives New Zealanders their living, is to be washed away, as the penalty for the destruction of protective forests, what is to become of all the present-day laudable efforts to improve the standard of living—social security measures, extensive road-making, and so on ? Verily, when the matter is logically reasoned out; it appears that the cart is being put before the horse. The saving of the life-giving top soil is the first need, and adequate areas of native forest must be restored in places where its great water-holding equipment is essential,. , . ' ■ A step in the right direction has been taken in the appointment of a committee which is now mapping and demarcating all lands according to the purposes for which they should have been used'. The next great need is to prohibit any further destruction of native bush on high country. Little or no effort is apparent in this direction, except the waging of a vigorous war against deer and other animals which ravage the native forests. New Zealand's wealth is its rich fertile soil. It is useless to talk of potential riches when so little Notice is guven to the protection of the existing remnants of forest growths which form the only natural safeguard against erosion.