The Dominion. SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1937. TREES FOR PROFIT AND BEAUTY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 160, 3 April 1937, Page 8

The Dominion. SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1937. TREES FOR PROFIT AND BEAUTY

The Minister of Internal Affairs is altogether too pessimistic when he expresses the opinion that a losing battle has been wage by the many individuals, and organisations throughout New Zealand who for many years past have devoted themselves earnestly and intelligently to the conservation of native flora and to planting foi eautj. It would be ungenerous to criticise Mr. Parry on such a small cetai of his speech at the Scenery Preservation Conference yesterday, because his general attitude to this question is earning him the support of Nature lovers in all parts of New Zealand; but sometimes he forgets that other Governments and other Ministers have been eqt < , inspired by. and equally helpful to. the causes that move him so deeplv. That by the way, however. It is all to the good that attention should be drawn anew to the vanishing heritage of the New Zealand native bush, and to the opportunities—so commonplace and so frequent that they are apt to be overlooked—available both to individual citizens and to local authorities for repairing the damage done by axe and fire in the early days of settlement. It is possible to speak too sweepingly of the destruction of our indigenous forests and to seem to imply that every man who fells a tree is an enemy oi his coun tj. Mr. Parry, his enthusiasm tempered by a rich vein of common sense, does not make this mistake. He looks at the practical side ot things as well as at the aesthetic, as was well demonstrated by Ins inclusion ot the sawmilling industry among the parties represented at the conference. Nevertheless in approaching consideration of scenery preservation it is important to notice that there can be extremes both ways _the type of citizen who wishes to see our hills and valleys left exactly as they were when Captain Cook first touched New Zealand, and the citizen of the opposite type whose fingers itch tor an axe whenever he sees an unspoiled prospect.

Much of the clearing necessary to the breaking-in of farming lands in the North Island has been thoroughly justified. Without it we would not be to-day the Empire’s foremost supplier ot mutton, lamb, cheese and butter; but many hundreds of acres more, of little or no agricultural or pastoral value, either were burnt unintentionally when the better-quality farm lands were being cleared, or themselves were cleared without an adequate knowledge of the qua.ity oi the land to be made available. What we need to do in the iutuie —foi there are still parts of the country where bush is being felled and burnt off to make way for farm lands —-is to see that clearing is not undertaken on types of soil better suited to the growing of timbei than of grass; that in such areas the cutting of timber is skilfully and carefully done, so as to damage as little as possible the younger growth; and that cutting is followed by equally careful planting and nursing to assist the natural regeneration of the forests. Beyond this, an attempt ought to be made—and, if yesterdays conference is any indication of the spirit abroad, will be made to leaffoiest the despoiled hilltops and so restore their economic value as ram forests and natural reservoirs.

And—which is where afforestation merges into the more delicate work of beautifying—when clearing and burning for farm purposes can be economically justified, it ought to be recognised as desirable practice, if not indeed made mandatory by law, to leave standing, in odd corners and broken gullies which can never be much use for the plough, patches of bush in its original state. There is no more pleasing sight in all the New Zealand countryside than a well-grassed, well-tended farm with a stand or stands of virgin bush. After that comes decorative planting, which is more properly the province of beautifying societies and local authorities. The larger problems of supervising felling, whether for clearing or for milling, and reafforesting the watersheds can be handled best by State departments, although they will not be handled with much success without the goodwill and co-operation of farmers, sawmillers and the public generally. When it comes to small-scale planting, whether of roadsides, parks and reserves, or private property, the initiative should lie with the communities concerned.