West Coast forests

Press, 6 July 1977, Page 20

West Coast forests

Sir, —Colin Burrows’s letter (“The Press,” July 2) criticising the West Coast sawmillers is very misleading. The West Coast sawmilling industry is the outcome of recommendations made by the West Coast Committee of Inquiry in 1960. It recognised the need to sustain an economically viable timber industry of specific size. This became a Government responsibility as nearly all the merchantable forest land is Crown owned. The recent implementation of a Government-approved management policy for indigenous State forest has caused a reduction in the merchantable State forest roundwood available to the timber industry. At the present rate of podocarp roundwood use there is no prospect of sufficient exotic sawlogs being available on the Coast to sustain the industry. The social and economic welfare of people on the Coast is more important than the statements of an academic. — Yours, etc., ROSS WYLIE. Nelson July, 4, 1977.

Sir, — So Colin Burrows threatens to emerge to fight a battle in the political arena for forest reserves in Westland ("The Press,” July 2). Fortunately for the forests the battle he speaks of has been under way for some time. Apparently unbeknown

to him, the 330,000 signatures attached to the Maruia Declaration far exceed the total achieved by the successful Manapouri petition, and these signatures represent the strongest political safeguard against any decision to sacrifice the proposed reserves in Westland. However, as Dr Burrows now appreciates, the determination of sawmillers to clear fell these forests is strong indeed, and his active support of the conservation cause will certainly be needed. I hope his public stand will arouse the rest of the academic biologists. — Yours, etc., KEVIN BURGESS. Nelson. July 3, 1977. Sir, — As I crumpled my little lace-edged square of cambric into a tear-sodden ball, I wondered what manner of public relations man could move a young girl so deeply with his stark portrayal of poignant human pathos. The forsaken streets of Cobden complete with polluted puddles, a forest of power poles, and fully enlarged to heighten the horror, is a truly sobering picture — with or without the fog. I can only agree, it would be kinder to let the area revert to bush. However, we must heed the lesson behind all acknowledged great works of fiction. Your three full-page impressions commissioned by the Sawmillers’ Federation have a story to sell to the nation. Their message is that sawmillers are desperately anxious to keep public awareness away from the enormity of their great bush ripoff until the slaughter is complete. I don’t think anyone will buy it. — Yours, A. GOODALL. July 3, 1977. . .