FATE OF THE FOREST

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 15, 19 January 1914, Page 6

FATE OF THE FOREST

"The natural bush and plantations destroyed will take years to replace," is one sad sentence in to-day's report of the forest fire at Te Aroha. The common experience is that natural bush is not replaced at all. It is true that within one lifetime a second growth will clothe ground where the conditions are favourable, but this new issue is a poor copy of Nature's old edition. The original forest is vanishing for these reasons:— -(1) The need of more land for settlement ; (2) timber-milling, which may, or may not, release, or spoil, land for cultivation ; (3) stupidity and vandalism; (4) carelessness. In certain localities the ground and undergrowth of the forest are dry in summer, and offer no resistance to fire. Instead, the flames find food, and soon a splendid hillside may be a blackened ruin. This danger of devastation always threatens the kauri forests of the north during a dry stage of the summer, but the risk is not Restricted to the pino tribes. Many areas of mixed trees lmy be at the mercy of a, careless smoker or picnicker during a hot, spell, as residents of Wellington and district know well. This subject comes up annually in Parliament, and the Government of the Day expresses sympathy with those who desire an improvement in the insurance policy for the scenic reserves and bird sanctuaries. No doubt New Zealand can learn much from the United States of America,, where the Federal and State authorities have been successfully energetic during the past few years with scientific schemes to save . the forest. The people and their representatives Were slow to perceive the need of action, but when the enormity of the avoidable waste of national wealth was at last 'impressed on them, the progress of safeguarding plans was rapid. In New Zealand the people, in the main, are thoughtless and inert as to the fate of the forest in any part of the country.