Conservationists

Press, 27 June 1983, Page 18

Conservationists

Sir,—Your correspondent, Ross Crozier (June 21), uses “Federated Futures” as if they were dirty words. My reaction to the suggestion that Mr Elworthy has aligned himself with that group is “bully for. him.” Federated Futures promotes balancing of aesthetic and commercial values. I have witnessed the shocked horror of an internationally reputed timber expert at the Shameful waste and neglect of the massive resource of Maruia beech, which is diseased, decadent and dying for want of care and attention. Is this conservation? Throughout the country, totara, as a species, appears to be dying out from some unknown cause. The trees are simply dying back from the top long before reaching maturity. As a “future” minded person, I am concerned. Do the Native Forest Action Council and the Royal New Zealand Forest and Bird Protection Society care and if so, what are they doing about these problems? — Yours, etc. B. W. PATTISON, Hokitika. June 23, 1983.

Sir, — At last the ailment troubling the nation has been diagnosed. “Are we not constipating ourselves with democratic processes?” suggests the Minister for Lands and Forests, frustrated no doubt by public submissions producing continued obstruction to the free flow of ministerial intent, as for example with the KaimaiMamaku management plan and the proposed merger of his own two departments. This last has also seen the complaint spread from the great unwashed public without to the inner fastnesses of the bureaucacy and even the Cabinet. A particularly distressing symptom of the condition is “orchestration” of opinion. Unfortunately, after years of research by the best brains in the country, no-one has yet been able to discover a way whereby a large number of people all asking for the same thing can express themselves very differently. If Mr Elworthy cannot carry the people with him, the people will drop him and his party. Democracy survives — just. If cultivated, it will not constipate. — Yours, etc., ERIC BENNETT. June 19, 1983.