PRESERVING NATIVE BUSH

Matamata Record, Volume XX, Issue 1917, 14 March 1938, Page 4

PRESERVING NATIVE BUSH

EFFORTS BEING MADE Matamata County in Sympathy The vital necessity for preserving areas of native bush which are intact in the Matamata county were empha* sised by members of the County Council at the March meeting on Friday. The matter was brought under the notice of the council by a letter which was received from the New Zealand Forestry League asking that the council give information as to the ownership and other particulars of any patches of native bush in the county. The letter read as follows: “ The council of this league has undertaken to compile a list of all scenic areas throughout the Dominion that are not publicly owned or controlled, the object being that over a number of years step,? may be taken to permanently preserve these areas, either by persuasion of the owner or by purchase by the State or by pri-vately-subscribed funds. “It is recognised that in practically every district there are patches of native forest that are of distinct value from a scenic point of view, and consequently if destroyed would constitute a severe loss. The league has set itself the task of getting direct personal touch with owners, and hopes to save, from destruction remnants of the incomparable, indigenous forest growths that constitute a valuable and irreplaceable asset' from a scenic view point.”

The league then asked the council for a general description of any such patches of native bush in the county.

Discussing the letter, members of the council expressed themselves as being fully in sympathy with the aims of the. league. Cr. P. R. Hawke said he thought the council should give whole-hearted support to the request. The engineer said that there were patches of beautiful bush in the Pukeatua township. Pukeatua evidently had some owners who appreciated the value of native bush. It was most important, said Cr. E. D. White, that the Mamaku bush should be preserved from the danger of fire and milled scientifically, so that when the timber had been taken out of it, it would regenerate. < . It was decided to leave the engineer to give the league the information it asked for, and councillors were asked to give him all the help they could.