HIGH-COUNTRY LAND

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22305, 20 January 1938, Page 12

HIGH-COUNTRY LAND

AREA TAKEN OVER FOR STATE FORESTS

“NOT LOCKING UP PRODUCTIVE AREAS’’ The selling aside for State forest purposes of certain lands in the Lake Sumner district was mentioned recently by the Hon. F. Langstone, Minister for Lands, and Commissioner of State Forests. Instead of again being leased for pastoral use, the lands are to be retained as State Forest. In a recent statement the Minister said that from newspaper statements and other information which had been brought under his notice, he thought there might be some misunderstanding of the policy being followed, and that it might be thought that the Lands Department intended to cancel grazing licences over high-country runs and thereby withdraw valuable areas from production. However, what was being done in the Lake Sumner locality was entirely In the public interest, Mr Langstone said, and there was no question of locking up productive areas. No licences had been cancelled, and in deciding that certain areas should be reserved for the better preservation of the protection forests they carried, the Government was merely exercising Its prerogative of dealing with Crown estate in the manner besf calculated to serve the public interest, the Minister said. t a - nnn An unoccupied pastoral run of 4o,uikj acres, which had not been leased since 1930, was set apart as a permanent State Forest in August, 1937. The area was high, dangerous, snow country, with summer grazing only. There was bush in the valleys, and tributaries «t the Hurunui river had their source within the area. The conservation of the remaining forest cover was considered to be of the utmost importance, and it had therefore been decided, that no further efforts should be made to lease the land. While that area was being dealt with, two other areas of pastoral run country of a similar nature in the same locality came under consideration. These areas contained 18,432 and 34,500 acres respectively, and formed portion of the Glens of Tekoa station. The rentals paid were £55 and £6O per annum respectively, under leases expiring this year, and one of the leases was merely a temporary one, Mr Langstone continued. The total carrying capacity was only about 4000 dry sheep, and the country, running as it did up to 6000 feet, was subject to snow. There was a considerable amount of bush, and in view of the importance of conserving the forest growth on high country of this nature, it was decided that upon expiration of the existing leases the land should not again be let but should be set apart as permanent State Forest. When the arrangements for reservation were completed there would be a fairly compact block containing approximately 98,000 acres of high country in the Lake Sumner locality under State Forest control and management. The action being taken, said the Minister, was decided upon after full investigation of all the circumstances by competent officers of his departments. and there was nb doubt whatever in his mind that the reservation of the land with a view to conserving the remaining forest growth was the right and proper course to pursue. Even to the most casual observer it was not difficult to see the damage done by denuding the hills of their forest covering. At Arthur’s Pass might be seen on one side of the railway line the hills in the permanent State Forest protected by a dense growth of native bush, and on the other side the stark, barren hills on private land, where the slasher, axe, and fire stick had destroyed the native covering, allowing the heavy rains to erode the hillsides into deep watercourses and bring down thousands of tons of soil, rock, and shingle into the Waimakariri river, which river carried the deposits downstream, thereby raising the bed and causing the river t change its course and do untold dam age to farm lands on lower levels. Attention could not too often be directed to the problem. Mr Langstone concluded and there must be estabMshed in the public mind not only a love for New Zealand’s native bush in the aesthetic sense, but also a realisation of the necessity of preserving it for the more practical reasons.