NATURE AND MAN

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 124, 11 May 1935, Page 13

NATURE AND MAN

Another Good Friend

LADY GALWAY WILL HELP (Edited by Leo Fanning.) Before Lady Galway left England she had read much about New Zealand's forests and buds, and the had an eagerness to see them. It is already evident that Her Excellency will be a very helpful supporter of tlie ideals ol the Forest and Bird Protection Society, Horticultural Societies and similar organisations. Their Excellencies’ children are also warmly interested in bird and plant life. Lady Gaiway has spoken regretfully of ’‘improvements” which have marred the beauty of many landscapes in England, and she is hopeful that the spoilers’ hands will not do similar mischief here. Happily Her Excellency will have opportunities to assist in checking vandalism. YEARNING FOR BEAUTY. A pleasant passage from “Down the Garden Path’’ (Beverley Nichols): — “Every poor man’s garden, in a city, is a sweet but pitiful illustration ol some faint striving after beauty; it shows his feeble groping for freedom--the freedom which he sees in even the faintest and weakest caprice of the vine that reaches so weakly, so painfully towards his bedroom window. In these flowery prisons he finds release . . . . sees visions in a window-box . . . . escapes even, beneath the disheartened leaves that struggle up in a solitary flower-pot. 1 think that nothing is so sad nor yet so strangely inspiriting as the sight, in dark London alleys, of those green patches which are the nearest approach that some men will ever make to the fields so far away.” In contrast with the limited opportunities of poor folk of London to enjoy beauty of Nature, people of New Zealand are indeed fortunate still, despite havoc of the past. Consider, for example, this passage from “Yesterdays in Alaoriland” by Andreas Reiechek:— “In this primeval paradise (on an isle of Hauraki Gulf) f felt the windows of my soul were opened. Nature’s wonderful mantlo lay spread out before me; living things, the connection and coherence of the manifold works of God. That night, lying there, I experienced a sense of shame, which those who swear by civilisation will certainly fail to understand, that civilised man can be tho worst vermin of the whole earth. For wherever he comes, he destroys the wonderful equipoise of Nature, and much as he bothers himself with his socalled arts, lie is not even capable of repairing the damage be causes. As il in sympathy with my thoughts, about three o'clock a comet appeared in the sky, its long tail glowing with palid light.” Since those words were written, more than half a century ago* many beautyspots Of New Zealand have been marred by men—aud the desecration continues.

SAVE ENOUGH OF THE FORES! PRIMEVAL.

With those words of Reischek consider this comment of Robert Marshall in a recent issue of “American Forests”:—

“The critical proclem in forest recreation to-day is not to lay out attractive golf links among the trees, nor to construct well-graded highways which scar the scenery a little less than usual, nor to beautify the roadsides, important as such a consideration may be. The critical problem is to save the rapidly disappearing primitive. Every year sees several of our few remaining forest wilderness areas invaded by roads. Where twenty-five years ago there were more than one hundred tracts of roadless forest with at least one million acres in them, to-day there remain but thirty with even quarter of a million acres. 'Similarly, the tracts of virgin timber have been so depleted that to-day there are certain very beautiful forest types in which not a single primeval area of more than a few hundred acres remains.

Similar unnecessary reading in New Zealand has already given much cause for grief to lovers of the forests.

STEWART ISLAND KIWIS

In “Mutton Birds and Other Birds” Mr. H. Guthrie-Smith makes seme interesting remarks on kiwis and Stewart Island. “I believe,” he writes, “that during day-time the Stewart Island kiwi not infrequently moves abroad, or at any rate lies out in covert; and, speaking generally, that the bird is less strictly nocturnal in his habits than, according to observers, are other breeds of Apteryx. “These southern forests, it must be remembered, in spite of their less tropical jungle growth, are on the whole darker than those of the north. Some of the filmy ferns for instance, species that luxuriate in shadow, deliberately in these southern woods expose their leaves to light, one in especial, noticeably, for this purpose, twisting its fronds on the dark, delicate stripes. This lesser average degree of light is owing to the greyer sky, and to the comparative sunlessness of the climate; so that gloomy weather during the short winter days, cannot be far different from bright nights in summer, and this kiwi of southernmost range, may have thus grown accustomed to travel and feed in either light.” THE SKUA—A BUCCANEER BIRD. The skua, a pirate among birds helps them to carry out the law of “survival of the tittest.’ The skua certainly compels various smaller species —and even larger ones—to be ever on tho alert against its raids. For example, the big albatross, nesting on lonely isles ol the southern ocean, has to be wary of Mr. Skua. Here is an observation ol Andreas Reischek on an islet where many pairs of albatross hud their homes.

“In most cases,” ‘’J found the female on tho nest, the male bird standing close near to her, aud occasionally feeding her. Sometimes the male relieved the female, but they never both leave the nest until the? young one is able to defend itself against the skua gull. While taking the measurements of tho first nest 1 came to, I laid down the egg beside me. when a skua darted at it and destroyed it. They were so bold that they frequently came close enough for me to hit them with a stick.”