“HEATHER”

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 244, 9 July 1921, Page 8

“HEATHER”

(To the Editor.) Sir, —The heather menace is altogether too serious a matter to be treated lightly, n.nd I am not, simple and tempting as it is, retaliating or adopting my opponent’s methods. .

I. take it that the head of the Forestry Department knows exacty what he is talking about.when he voices the danger of the introduction of heather, and his expert views must necessarily carry great weight. I for one cannot accept Mr. Reich in refutation. Personal observation and statements made me by reliable people, with "on tho spot” knowledge, confirms the statement made by the forestry expert. If further evidence is needed that the heather is spreading, I have it in a letter jnst received from tho caretaker of tho Tongariro National Park.

On the basis of the survival of the fittest, heather has in Scotland defied competition, and other forms of plant life have been compelled to succumb to it. It proved one of the hardiest and most aggressive of them all, and, in the face of the fact that heather in the park ie making headway, what can we logically expect for our own indigenous plants ?, We know in New Zealand, to our sorrow, what the careless introduction of exotics has cost ns, and it should be noted that the worst of them gained their footing in places where they are not given the unbridled freedom that they will have in national parks. Surely our experience with gorse, ragwort, Californian thistle, broom, oxeye daisy, foxglove, hemlock, sweot. briar, pennyroyle, goats' rue, tutean, blackberry, and others is sufficient. No. Mr. Reich, we must look ahead, as well as benefit by our past experiences. We do not want our farming community saddled with v further trouble, and we do not want our plants to go. in tho same way as our birds. Most of tlie beautiful insect-eating native birds, that the pioneers found here, are either extinct or almost so, and we have iu their place the introduced sparrow, finches, and blackbird, all of which delight in destroying our fruit and eating our grain crops. Mr. Reich and. Mr Cullen remind me of tho gentleman in Kaikoura. who first introduced tho rabbit into New Zealand. That man, no doubt, had visions of rabbit warrens, or perhaps rabbit pie—which reminded him so of Home. Later, surely, he must have wished that his efforts’in acclimatisation had not been so successful, as bunny, having no natural enemies thrived exceedingly, ruined largo numbers of farmers, ond already has cost ns millions of pounds. let Mr. Reich fill his garden with heather if he likes, but ho must not exnoct us fo stend by and see our parks filled with it too. Our country mountains and native flora are surely beautiful'and quaint, enough, and we prefor Io have them remain as they are tn their natural state, rather than assume tho eh.irne.ter of an imitation Scotland.—l an *’ clc ” v. W. VOSSELER. July 8. 1921.