NEW ZEALAND BUSH.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 13 November 1935, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND BUSH.

WHY NOT PRESERVE IT? A New Zealand lady, now resident in New South Wales, writes to a relative as follows: — Tour account of the bush, unspoilt as yet, and of the tuis, makes one sad that such beauties of Nature should be ruthlessly destroyed by the oncoming mills. Why does not your self-seeking Government wake up to the fact that the chief assets of New Zealand are fast being wiped out. I say "assets" because "assets" mostly appeal to the commercial mind.

For every idle male tourist who takes an interest solely in shooting game, there are probably 10,000 others who take no interest in killing things. but who would travel round the world to see the natural beauty of New Zealand if they knew what it was like. I suppose farmers in New Zealand Will soon have to put up fences six to eight feet high to keep out deer. They will soon be a worse pest than the rabbits. New South Wales have several extensive national ■ parks, where no trees are allowed to be felled, no flowers picked, and no shooting of birds. But lately I noticed some misguided trustee «f on of the "parks" had seen fit to introduce some deer into it As if indigenous pests were not enough, the great idea is to import others from all over the world.

Then we have plenty of snakes, most of them fatal biters, and yet the zoo imports plenty more, one interestspecimen that spits and kills the persoD or animal if it hits them. They havo also brought a pythpn from Borneo; which is so large and strong that it took ten men to hold it and put it into its enclosure at the zoo. Already we have in the Northern Territory nativo pythons of lesser size, but still capable of swallowing a baby, which, actually happened some time ago. I havo omitted the crocodiles, which swarm in the tropical rivers and are really land pests, as they come out of the rivers and chase people on the land. It is now getting warmer and snakes are coming out of their winter quarters. To-day I met a very large one, quite 4ft 6in long, coming up the hill right in the open, near our house. I have never killed a snake yet and I was afraid to hit it with a stick in case the stick broke, in which case it might have turned to attack. I threw a large stone at it, which hit it, but it did not seem to mind that. I watched it slithering up the hill until it reached a large old stump of a tree, where • somehow ,it must have got inside, for on going round it no sign of the brute eouldbe seen.