COOK'S CLEARING AT DUSKY SOUND.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16210, 13 May 1918, Page 4

COOK'S CLEARING AT DUSKY SOUND.

With regard to the rate of growth of native trees, Mr Honry H. Travers writes to the Wellington "Post"' .supporting tho opinion of Mr H. D. M. Haszard, Commissioner of Crown Lands for Southland, that the traces of a clearing at Dusky Sound are the remains of the -work done there by Captain Cook's party in 1773. Mr Hasaard contended that this wa.s an argument against reafforestation with, native trees, as t.iough the clearing was made 150 years ago there was not a tree on it wnich con id be usea for timber. Another correspondent, "isylva," questioned whether the spot referred to was that actually cleared by Captain Cook. In support of Mr Hazard's statement Mr Travers, quotes lrom "Murihiku" (by the late Hon. Dr. McNab) Captain Cook's own references to tho clearing at Dusky Bound, aud Dr. McXab's account ol his visit to the spot in 1900, and his identification of the locality. One extract is as follows: "In the gloom of the new forest which- has grown up ovci the clearing were visible nero and there the stumps of the old rimus that 0110 hundred and thirty years before Cook had cut down for ship's purposes. Under ordinary circumstances a period of fifty years would have proved too much for them; but here, protected from interference by man, shut off from sunlight and air by a new growth of foresi, and enveloped in a garment of roots and fern of all kinds, tho outlines of these mementos of Cook's stay have been protected from the ravages 6f time. And there seems no doubt that if the conditions are allowed to remain they will continue to resist the 'effacing fingers' of decay for another century. Venerable' monuments they are, and. it should be the care of the yonng Dominion that a spot which is rendered so sacred from its associations with tho greatest navigator of history should be protected from all outside forms of destruction."

"I ask the Hon. Mr Wilford, now Minister of Marine, to carry out the suggestion of his late predecessor," concludes Mr Travers, "and. also to instruct Captain Bollons on his next trip round the Middle Island to visit the locality and take measurements of the tr->es t'uat appear to have grown up sinco the original clearing, and if the captain does not know- either the scientific or Maori names, to bring pieces of each, -whether in flower or not, so that thev could I>o identified by Dr. Cockayne, Ph.D., F.R.S."