The Dominion THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1928. THE BALANCE OF NATURE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 289, 6 September 1928, Page 10

The Dominion THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1928. THE BALANCE OF NATURE

According to the President of the New Zealand Acclimatisation Societies’ Association, there appears to be a very good prospect of an increase in native bird life in spite of vermin. Mr. Tripps optimism is encouraging. If, he says the enemies of the birds could be got rid of, there would be no difficulty in iestockm & the birds, but that to-day was impossible. It is to be feared that we have paid very dearly for our errors of acclimatisation in the past. One of the natural cncm.es o the birds is the rat; of the rat, the weka; and of the weka, the the weasel, originally imported to keep down the rabbits. W a has happened? The rabbit has fallen a prey to a human enemy in the fur industry. The stoats and weasels have preferred to kill off the wekas, amongst other things, leaving the rat absolute free- ■ dom to attack other birds. And so the process of adjustment m the natural law of the survival of the fittest has gone on. There appears to be a growing public opinion in favour of preserving our native bird life. . The task involves not only the reduction of their natural enemies, but also the pieseivation aid extension of our native plant life. This, m pre-European days, suffered to sustain the country’s feathered population, but closer settlement has involved a tremendous reduction of the original area of native vegetation. . . . , The problem is one of conservation. But are our native bird sanctuaries actually sanctuaries in being? Mr. Inpp very rightly declares that these can only be made so if they are effectively cleaied of the vermin that prey upon the birds. Systematic trapping would greatly help in that direction. In this connection opossum trapping appears to have incidentally benefited the birds by catching rats as well as the legitimate quarry. The acclimatisation societies may rely on the support ot the public in this particular cause. ' Already there is in existence an organisation founded with the definite object of conserving our bird life, and much useful propaganda on the subject has been put into circulation through the Press and the schools. But the problem has a scientific aspect beyond- the grasp of the average layman, an aspect which envisages the whole field of acclimatisation generally in its relation to the balance of Nature. . The importation of foreign animals and birds, ot plants, ot parasitic insects, with a mission to destroy natural enemies which have become pests, is a question that properly belongs to the field of the scientist. Hjs opinion should be sought and his advice followed.