NATURE AND MAN

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 13092, 13 February 1937, Page 12

NATURE AND MAN

LET US BE FRIENDS GAJ.iL OF THE WILD (Edited by Leo- Fanning): Many kinds of b'rds and animals have :no fear of man when “the lord of tho fowl and the brute” brst come© into their view. Indeed they seem to have a wish to he fne A with the stranger-—the clothed ‘ f°" v ~ cd radish” as Carlyle called him—until his interest become© too absorbing (per the pot or other cooking device). Thus New Zealand’s trustful birds have .suffered death in countless thousands. Then came the pests imported by ‘man to make life m-ore anr more perilous for the birds. However, a belief. is gradually spreading among people of New Zealand and other countries that “lower creatures” have a right to< live, and a spirit of friendship between humanity and “the wild” is steadily growing This sentiment will help to improve the modern, type of civilisation which tends to put despair into even- the most stalwart philosophers, “Civil Eaton in chains'” was the recent remark of a journalist to which “Punch” put this tag: “Heaven help us if it ever manages to work itself properly loose.”

“HEAVENLY TWINS” OF THE

FAR. SOUTH

j Tire scad ion “.Sammy” and his I family are helping Dunedin people to ! lose their dr Cad of infantile paralyses. ! A few hundred “Sammies” playing on , the hcaclies of the North and South j Islands would .soon overcome the “epidemic of fear.” No doubt, many folk ] are surprised at the cheerful will'll g-i.nc-ss of the sea-lion to he friendly with i men, women and children, but the re- [ ports of Sammy’s ?chumnvness would . not- surprise Mr. H. Gutbrie-Smith, ; who had a delightful companionship j with seals on the coasts, of the Auckj land Islands. Here is -a heart-warm-j mg, soul-stirring passage from “Sor- | rows and Joys of a, New Zealand Xatj uralist” :—“Whilst walking one -happy j afternoon along the narrow shore line ; of Port Ross, a couple of pups .about 1 the size of Newfoundland dogs, after j moving parallel—they in their element | we.in ours—presently ventured a- furj ther step. These heavenly twins, j heading Us left the shallows where : they had been splashing .and galumph- ! lug as if in challenge and solicitation, j “On that long loch amongst the low ! tide-worn stones, hard set in yellow ; sand and salt seawrack, the little | roundabouts awaited me.. Like two ! girls together egging each other on. j daring what one alone would eschew, in most- attractive fashion they reven-1-j ed their s mple wish to know me better, to be friends. It was now for me the eldest by far of the three of ns. lo reciprocate, further to press the proffered, comradeship. All! that all of our emotions are not a© rightful as the best, of them, that man had almost perlY.rrr to persecute and destroy when he nught cherish, and serve! Who has-not watched a mother playing with her babe? Yet in our relation to what we serenely term the brute creation we lose the .altruistic touch divine. Through human unhumble, dull-hrainedness we forfeit a pleasure akin to that sweet opening of tlie heart to kindliness, to that maternal forgetfulness of self. In the happy hunting grounds, nay, better named by far, in the Elysian fields how shall nob author and seal renew ' their momentary mundane tie—a miracle almost of as discourse betwixt the quick and the dead—that link of wild, and tamo when: for the first time in these sub-Antarctic, isles the flesh of man and seal have met ■

in ought but pafn and fear! Par, far more eagerly do I long to meet that baby seal .again than to re-greet in heaven nine-tenths of my acquaintances. It, was lovei at first sight. Speaking the little language—Swift’s

language to -Stella—and advancing V voiy slowly I put out my hand till one-.-' of them touched it with his nose;. j nor were the nostril©' hastily drawn. Wo were friends—Hoe ma . tonga—friends to the death. I feck ©arc that within its fat body there must have been -some movement cor- ' responding lo a canine tail-wag, t 0 a y sbv canine wriggle and Inngb.

“OUR FRIENDS THE TREES” Th plea of the Hon. W. E. Parry, Minister of Internal Affairs, for “ou r Friends the Trees”—in his recent statement of the arrangements for a national conference of nature-lovers w ;ji strengthen the hope of scores 0 f thousands of New Zealanders that a strong onset will be made against deserration of beauty spot© and the saddening slaughter of wayside native trees. The Minister’s ideal is a very powerful working fellowship of people devoted to the conservation and cult of beauty in landscapes. He has no eagerness for “sleeping partners” ] n . this -national movement. He has a vision of folk who'will be up and doing. Well, the practical enthusiast*, will have plenty of scope for their zeal. For example, hero is an indiea-’ tin of the need of effective action shown ‘in an editorial head*d 'The Hand of the Spoiler,” in the “GreyRiver Argus” :—“All too few and farbetween are those nature lovers on the West Goa© who keep a jealous eye ou the remnants of forest beauty, that remain within sight of our roads. One such in. the Grey Valley has been drawing .attention to the destruction of trees that border a new road in the vicinity. In South Westland, owing doubtless to. population remaining sparse, some magnificent bush avenues have survived to be the joy of every- passer-by; blit it is far otherwise further north,, where people live in great- number. They now must go well off the beaten track if they- wish to feast their gaze on our wonderful flora, because it has gradually come to' be eliminated from the margin of every thoroughfare. With it, too. have gone the great majority of thenative birds to-the hinterland. ~o tbax- :• many West Coasters to-day are no, longer familiar with these specie*. , and so are unaware of their loss.” i Similar short-sighted materialism \ has taken toll of young kauris (cut for use as mine props) near a highway of North Auckland (“Kauriland,” alas!;; That kind of vandalism is an abuse) of land tenure which .clamours tor ' strong action by the people’s elected: representatives on the basic princip].of national welfare.

PREFERENCES You choo.se the ocean’s steady ro-'r. The cry of gulls, salt-scented air. White sand -'pressed firm beneath your feet, A salt breeze blowing through your hair, While I turn ever toward the land. Fragrance of hay and winding streams. Orchard and wood and leafy lane: These are the substance of ray d-rea^;. —-I. R. Hasting©, in “X.Z. Railways Magazine.”