WAIPOUA STATE FOREST

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25552, 21 July 1948, Page 4

WAIPOUA STATE FOREST

COMMITTEE FAVOURS NATIONAL PARK DISCUSSION BY HOUSE DEFERRED (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, July 20. A recommendation that three petitions asking that the Waipoua State Forest be declared a national park be referred to the Government for favourable consideration was returned by tne Lands Committee of the House of Representatives in its report to the House to-day. The petitions were presented to the House last year and during the recess members of the committee visited the forest. The first petition, which was from G. Archey and 5143 others, of Auckland, asked for the declaration of Waipoua State Forest as a national park under the board of trust with a view to the preservation of the forest in a state of nature for all time and that all milling and other State forest activities cease at once. The second petition, signed by M. H. Rice and six others, of Auckland, asked for the reservation of 9000 acres of Waipoua State Forest and other adjacent areas in a state of nature for all time and for modification of the State Forest Service’s policy. The third petition, that of L. Parore and three others, of Dargaville, sought repeal of the Forests Amendment Act, 1939, and asked that Waipoua forest be created a national park. At the suggestion of the Prime Minister (Mr P. Fraser) to-day, discussion of the petitions and of the committee’s recommendation was deferred until Thursday. The Commissioner of State Forests (Mr C. F. Skinner) was absent to-day because bad weather had delayed his return from the north.