LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 33, 9 February 1925, Page 6

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

To many of the pioneer settlers of New Zealand the forest was a growth to.be stripped from the land to make room for pasture or crops, within recent years the educative work of the State Forest Service and the Forestry League has done much to eradicate the timber-des-truction habit thus formed] but we have not yet acquired a full sense of the value of the forest. Compared with the people of Great Britain, for .example, we are yet vandals. It is, then, important that all means should be used to impress upon the children the necessity for conserving the timber supplies yet available and providing, by reafforestation, for the needs of the future. The revival of Arbor Day as proposed to the conference of agricultural instructors and school inspectors, last week, will help. If school nurseries are established the children of country districts will acquire useful knowledge and gain an insight into work of national importance. ' Children in the cities also need this education so that they may learn not to destroy beautiful and valuable plantations. There is ample scope, in Wellington at least, for greater activity m replanting bare and waste places. If the children are taught the worth of B uch work* now they will be eager to advance it in later years.