HEATHER PLANTED IN PARK

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26970, 20 February 1953, Page 3

HEATHER PLANTED IN PARK

SPREAD DESCRIBED AS TRAGEDY PROBLEM IN TONGARIRO AREA The spread of heather over many thousands of acres was one of the tragedies of the Tongariro National Park, said Professor L. W. McCaskill, in an illustrated lecture last evening to the Christchurch branch of the forest' an d Bird Protection Society. j e hea ther, he said, had been introduced by a Scottish member of one of the early park boards, and was spreading to the detriment of the native vegetation. The introduction of such a plant was completely foreign to the idea of a national park, and the position could best be summed up in the words of Dr. J. G. Myers, who s aic L “Nature had made there a Venus de Milo: man crowned her with a Merry Widow hat.’’ Professor McCaskill said the other tragedy about the park was the way in which hillsides were being littered with empty beer bottles and tins. There were about 13 mountain huts, including the Ruapehu Ski Club’s hut. costing £23,000, on the ski-ing grounds m the park. 2000-Mile Tour With the aid of 120 coloured slides, Professor McCaskill described a 2000mile tour which he made in the North Island last month. He said that the Tongariro National Park .was important t o the North Island because the island had so few national parks in comparison with the South Island. The North Island farmer, he said seemed to have passed the bush destruction era, and was finding it paid him to conserve the remaining bush because of its value in water and soil conservation and stock shelter Professor McCaskill described forest developments at. Kinleith. He said that the growing of exotic trees was making possible the protection of native forest which otherwise might have to be logged. Land development schemes in the pumice country of the central North Isiand and in -the gum lands of North Auckland were referred to by Professor McCaskill. He suggested that these were the areas to which young men in Canterbury who wanted to take up la, l d of their own should look Professor McCaskill recalled that the Waipoua forest had recently been decl?red a sanctusiry. This meant he said, that 22,500 acres in the heart of the kauri country would be saved from 1 the axe. The declaration marked the ® n< l. °* a cam Paign which proved that ’ if their arguments were convincing, people and organisations, aided by the press, could prevail against Govern- 1 ment policy. <