RUINOUS EROSION

Evening Star, Issue 23208, 6 March 1939, Page 10

RUINOUS EROSION

DISASTROUS MISTAKES IN NORTHLAND

gome of the worst penalties due to blunders in the destruction of native forests are being suffered in the Northland, sometimes known at KaurUana. In a letter to the Forest and Bird Protection Society, Mr E. T. Frost, the Society’s representative in Northland, writes:—

“I have just completed a motor trip of about 1,200 miles, during which I visited a number of out-of-the-way places and took particular notice ot the remnants of the once glorious forests that covered the North Auckland district. “Starting at Parenga, near Spirits Bay, I worked south as far as Tauranga via the Puketi State Forest, near Kaeo, thence across to the West Coast via the Waipoua kauri forest. _ “ I hear that the kauri is to be wvked out in the Puketi State forest, near Okaihau. This will spell destruction to this fine area, which is the last remnant of kauri on the Itast Coaet. Should this area of high country be denuded of its forest covering, it will spell disaster to the settlements on the low lands at Kaeo and the surrounding district. . “ Already they are suffering for the mistakes of the past, and disastrous floods have frequently occurred in recent years. The worked-over country, adjoining the Puketo forest, is an eyesore and a striking example of the vandalism, of civilised man. The country is rough and the rainfall heavy, and the denuded country is washing away with every heavy rain. Little use has been made of tlaig worked-out area, and it is now a breeding ground for noxious weeds and is also a potential source ot danger to the forest adjoining, as it is liable to carry fire during the dry seasons. Some of the local bodies are n*w paying for the past folly of land settlement. The Hokianga County is about bankrupt, and cannot maintain “ Over large areas the whole country seems to be moving now that the forest' covering is gone. Roads disappear overnight. In one case I saw a whole row of piles 1 driven alongside a road to prevent further slipping. , Fences move every winter, and cow sheds and wool sheds have been endangered. In one instance, the only road access to a settlement was wiped out, and the settlers were months without road access. “ This will continue for years getting progressively worse. Yet they are still chopping down some of the last remnants of hush to get a few years_ of grass, while their earlier so-called improvements are vanishing. In a few years it will be all scrub and slips, and in many cases large areas will be abandoned. A vigorous public and private policy of reafforestation is needed immediately to check ih© drift to destrnction. Already in this same country there can be seen tens of thousands of acres which have reverted to scrub, and as far as one can see, very little stock is being carried on these areas. “ In . one instance I noticed the sides of a mountain; so steep that it could not. be ridden over, had been cleared of heavy bush quite recently, and the whole face seemed to be coming, down. It appears that to save some surveying the settler bad been given title right to the top of a mountain, rather than run a line across the face lower down. Consequently he chopped all the bush, with the result ijiat he will lose it all in a few years. Further, no regeneration of forest is possible as the slips uncover the rock and nothing can now take root. “ This is so-called land settlement and is .in a. line with what has oourred all ever the Dominion. ‘What a commentarv on our intelligence I The old Maori knew better.”