FOREST DESTRUCTION

Evening Star, Issue 22629, 22 April 1937, Page 10

FOREST DESTRUCTION

CAUSE Of SOIL EROSIOH A DISTURBING POSITION [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, April 22. “ Many New Zealanders hold up their hands in horror when we read about dust storms and floods in America, but we fail to see that the position is even more menacing right here in New Zealand,” said Captain E. V. Sanderson, president of the New Zealand Forest and Bird Protection Society, in an address on the serious consequences resulting from the of native bush and) vegetation. Captain Sanderson said that 90 per cent, of the original forest of this country had been destroyed. It took 500 years to form one inch of top soil, and New Zealand was losing it at a much greater rate. “ This country consists of narrow islands rising steeply to mountainous country and is surrounded by very deep seas. Top soil from which nearly all our wealth comes is washed away to sea, but the sea does not give it hack in the form of a coastal reclamation. Nature has endowed our > country with wonderful water-holding in the association of plant life, and this heritage we have slain with fire, axe, saw, and the introduction of alien enemies such as deer and goats.” Mr W. H. Field, said that only in recent years had the public awakened to the fact that the destruction of native bush had gone too far. It w aa only a matter of years before New Zealand would be a desert.