Forest clearance

Press, 25 May 1984, Page 12

Forest clearance

Sir, — I ask your correspondent, K. D. Smith (May 24), the date that he organised the Maruia Declaration and when he arrived on the West Coast, via Canterbury University, on secondment to the Forest Service to research (Kikitea) forest in South Westland. I question the validity of many of the Maruia petition signatures throughout New Zealand. I suspect that the error factor could be as high as 50 per cent Among my many sources are sworn evidence to the Commerce Commission, the affidavit of Mr Schultz the then chairman of the Lands and Agriculture Committee and people of standing throughout the nation. I am prepared to stand n any court and produce evidence and witnesses who will attest to the validity of my remarks I suggest that your correspondent is

attempting to discredit and attack the research and experience of those who clash with his belief. Generally, defective data is being looked upon as gospel, glaring gaps are being glossed over and cockeyed conclusions reached, all blame avoided, all guilt discouraged and all responsibility negated. — Yours, etc., RON FERGUSON, Member, Royal Forest Society, Greymouth. May 24, 1984. Religions Sir,-Arthur May has done it again (May 21). His anti-Christian obsession blinds him to truth and objectivity. He makes two basic errors. First, the things he mentioned have nothing to do with Christian love. He has not yet learned to distinguish

nominalism and experience, the mere profession of the Christian faith and the reality of it in experience. His statement about Christ’s preoccupation with swords and the slaying of unbelievers requires no answer. It clearly exposes his ignorance of the faith he attacks so vehemently and blindly. Second, I am not an idealist. I have “tasted and seen, that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). Moreover, I am not "writing fantasies” about Christian love. I point your correspondent to love in action world wide — motivating, manning, and funding great relief agencies, rescue enterprises, etc. Can humanistic atheism produce anything to match this unselfish, unconditional, self-sacrificing love that cares and shares? — Yours, etc., H. G. ORAM. May 22, 1984. ‘