NATURE—AND MAN

Grey River Argus, 15 December 1937, Page 11

NATURE—AND MAN

Spoilers of Beauty CATCH THE VANDALS. (Edited by Leo Fanning). At intervals, from various districts, come complaints of vandalism in public parks and gardens and reserves of native forest. One of the recent sufferers is Stratford where young hooligans have sought amusement in nulling up flowers and smashing valuable young trees. It should not be difficult to catch the culprits. Citizens should form vigilance corps whose members should gladly take turns in keeping watch for miscreants. There are certain types of wrongdoers who cannot be reformed .by moral suasion. Detection and punishment are necessary to convince them that the way of the transgressors can be painful to themselves. When a young savage is intelligent something can be done with the education of him by the written or spoken word, but when his mind is hardened against teaching he is a subject for correction by stern measures. A real fear of the law must be impressed upon him. A LESSON IN BEAUTY. One of the pleasantest tributes to Nature that anybody could wish to read is “Marshland Elegy by Aldo Leopold in “American Forests”. “Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art with the pretty,” he writes. It through successive stages of ttu beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language. The o cranes lies, I think, in this highei gamut, as yet beyond the reach Ox “This much, though, can be said. Our appreciation of the crane grows with the slow unravelling of earth history. His tribe, we now know stems out of the remote Eocene. The other members of the fauna in whic he originated are long since entombed within the hills. When we hear his call we hear no mere bird. We hear the trumpet in the °r c > iest ™ of evolution. He is the symbol of our untamable past, of that incredib sweep of millennia which and conditions the daily affans o birds and men. “And so they live and have then being—these cranes —not in the constricted present, but in the wider reaches of evolutionary time. Then annual return is the ticking of the geological clock. Upon the place of their return they confer a peculiar distinction. Amid the endless mediocritv of space, a crane marsh holds a paleontological patent of nobih y, won in the march of aeons, and revocable only by shotgun. The sadness discernible in some maishes arises, perhaps, from their once having harbored cranes. Now they stand humbled, adrift in history. But the marshland was invaded by man who hoped to turn it into profitable farmland. He failed miserably. He spoilt an ideal home of the cranes, and left a mess in its place. “Some day,” concludes Aldo Leopold, "perhaps in the very process of our benefactions, perhaps in the fullness of geologic time, the last crane wnl trumpet his farewell and spiral skywards from the great marsh. High out of the clouds will fall the sound of hunting horns, the baying of ’the phantom pack, the tinkle of little bells, and then a silence never to be broken, unless perchance in some far pasture of the Milky Way.” After reading that article one hopes that the agitators for the draining of the Washdyke Lagoon, near Timaru, will cease from troubling the waterfowl. One hopes, too, the Canterbury’s Lake Ellesmere, where many black swans, ducks and pukeko have peace between the shooting seasons, will not be attacked by drainers. THE BRAVE LITTLE BLUE PENGUIN. “In “Mutton-Birds and Other Birds” H Guthrie-Smith chats delightfully about the little blue penguin which may be seen on many parts of the New Zealand Coasts. “The blue penguin,” he remarks, is “is most irascible’ when excited and disturbed in its burrow; and acts not only on the offensive but makes sorties of three or four feet from its eggs, and grasps with a ferocious grip the cap or hat guarding the digger’s hands. The object thus seized is taken into a sort of double chancery, the Penguin holding it in his beak whilst administeiing a furiously rapid beating with both flippers,—action realising in full degree my conception of what is termedin old-fashioned children s literature, 'a sound flogging’. Only have I seen equal rapidity of admonishment when, from a doorway in a crowded street, an over-worked mother of many seizes a small offender, pins him with one dexterout twist to her maternal gremium, in a fury spangs him standing, and rushes back to her over-boiling pot. “The action of the little Penguin displays just the same furious haste. It is thinking of its eggs and annoyed at the distraction, and really the per formance so resembled a human smacking administered expeditiously that I seemed to hear the cry and see the wriggling escape of the victim and the rubbing of the afflicted part, i The noise of these encounters and j the furious snarling of the spit-fire Penguin was altogether too much for ! Banjo’s equanimity . The field na- : turalist was lost in him. Dancing on ; his taut rope like an heraldic lion he roared his mingled feelings out, i joy at the din of battle bray, and deep i disgust at inability to help.” ! OLD MAN PLANTS A TREE. I The old man plants a tree; With pain, now, does he bend And kneel to spread the roots. Not he I Nor any of his age shall spend. One single hour beneath its shade Nor eat its fruit that is to be, For soon he shall be subject to the spade; J Yet graciously the old man plants c | tree. 5 —Bert L. Robinson, In the “Los Angeles Times.” BUSH FIRE BRIGADES. GOOD AUSTRALIAN EXAMPLE (Edited by Leo. Fanning). ’ The recent long spell of sunny k windy days in many parts of New £ Zealand put dread of forest fires intc 6 many folk. Happily rain dispel let 1 much of this fear, but it has to be

borne in mind that the big heat of summer is yet to come, and the conditions may again become very favourabout for flames, which may be started on their disastrous sweeps by the carelessness of a smoker or a picnicking billy-boiler. Now is the time to prepare for possibilities. , It will be well worth while for local and State authorities to obtain information about the working oi the bush fire brigades in Australia. In Victoria there is an association of such brigades, for which the secretrial work is provided by the Forests Commission. It is a voluntary movement with a membership of 13,000. Each member gives his service without any hint ot obligation. He pledges himself to assist in fire-fighting whenever called' upon and in the majority oi cases, each brigade arranges for the provisions of its own equipment, fire-fight-ing appliances and transport. Absolutely no governmental financial assistance is provided with the exception that where a brigade’s district includes or adjoins forest reserves the Forests Commission gives portion of the equipment in return for the brigade’s assistance in suppressing fires which may be burning in or threatening Crown reserves. The spirit of mutual self-help is thereby engendered and encouraged. Each brigade is free to make its own arrangements for financial support, but in the light of experience gained over a number of years, ceitain standard methods have been evolved which, with minor variations, have been more or less generally adopted. The most common procedure is to seek voluntary contributions from land-owners in the district, the rate of subscription being based either on area of land owned, or on a municipal valuation basis. Under this arrangement unemployed men or men in poor circumstances who voluntarily assist a brigade and whose disablement might bring about undue hai flship can be compensated. The fund will be administered by a special committee appointed by the association for the purpose. PUBLIC INTEREST. The development of the bush fire brigades movements in recent years into such a strong organisation is a definite indication that the people ot the State are becoming more and more alive to the actual and potential menace of the bush or forest fire and the necessity for concerted action if a recurrence of the calamitous losses of past years is to be warded off (states a reviewer). The ultimate solution of the fire problem is to prevent the occurrence of outbreaks, or at least those due to human agency. Nevertheless it is realised tnat it is a tremendous forward step to have the mechinery at disposal to enable fires which do start to be attacked systematically and brought under control before they assume dangerous proportions. With such an organisation, with units in practically every country centre throughout the State, prompt action is possible and the value of the work of these brigades has been demonstrated on numerous occasions. VERY HELPFUL CO-OPERATION. The movement is all the more remarkable in that its members give .entirely voluntary service. Although the brigades’ activities are concentrated principally on fires burning on or threatening private property, their assistance at fires in or near forest reserves has proved invaluable, in addition, their activities have frequently been responsible for suppressing fires which, if allowed to gain in volume, would have been a source of potential danger to forest reserves. For this reason the Forests Commission, although possessing efficient forest lire protection organisation of its own, welcomes the co-operation oi these brigades and gives the movement every encouragement and support, for the Commission is convinced that it must have a very decided influence in the solution of the lire problem, which in recent years has assumed such grave proportions. ALL YOURS, ALL MINE. New Zealanders, here is an inspiring poem of Elizabeth Mae Crosby, in "Zion’s Herald”— The world, the universe, all yours, an mine; , Teh lovely sky at morn, sunset, and night; The earth, all nature that the eye can For you, for me, then let the soul divine , The voice of bird, or wave, of brook, of pine; All yours, from meadow green to mountain white, The shade tree, wild fruits and blossoms bright; Creation beautiful, all yours, an mine. At early eve, then, let us set aside The fret and fever of a weary day; • Let joys of nature in the soul abide. Let all her chains your mind and body sway, For she is peaceful, joyous, and benign; ~ Creation beautiful, all yours, all mine. Those mind-moving heart-stirring lines are a reminder of Emerson’s tribute to the poet:— “Thou shalt lie close hid with nature, and canst not be afforded to the Capital or the Exchange. The world is full of renunciations and apprenticeships, and this is thine; thou must pass for a fool and a churl for a long season. This is the screen and sheath • in which Pan has protected his well- . beloved flower, and thou shall be known only to thine own, and they i shall console thee with tenderest love. And dhou shalt not be able to , rehearse the names of thy friends in thy verse, for an old shame befoie the holy ideal. And this is the reward: that the ideal shall be real to thee, and Tire impressions of the actual world shall fall like summer rain, copious, but not troublesome, to thy ! invulnerable essence. Thou shalt have the whole land for thy park and manor, the sea for thy bath and navigation, without tax and without envy; > the woods and the rivers thou shall own; and thou shalt possess that i wherein others are only tenants and boarders. Thou true land-lord! sealord! air-lord! Wherever snow falls, or water flows, or birds fly, wherever day and night meet in twilight, whereever the blue heaven is hung by clouds, or sown with stars, wherever are forms with transparent boundaries, wherever are outlets into celestial space, wherever is danger and awe, i and l®ve, there is beauty, plenteous j as rain, shed for thee, and though > thou shouldst walk the world over, 1 thou shalt not be able to find a con2 Edition inopportune or ignoble.”