NATURE-AND MAN

Northern Advocate, 7 November 1932, Page 8

NATURE-AND MAN

BOYS OF THE FUTURE. FRIENDS OF BIRDS AND TREES. (Edited by Loo Fanning.) In gracious friendliness tbe forest stands .With arms outspread to shield. from sun and rain And beckons us into a quiet lane As one who welcomes friends with outstretched hands, And proffers freedom of his home and lands. Though filled with voices one cannot explain, A quietness pervades the vast domain As when one enters some cathedral grand. ,

On entering wo fool beneath our foot Luxurious carpetings of moss and loaf, As, reverently, down arching aislos wo pass. With majesty tho woodland sooius replotc; Enchanting, wondrous, strengthening our belief That Sylvan gods arc dwellers of the place. • • —Conrad Sedgewick. ‘■‘The boy is father to the man,” wrote Wordsworth. ■ National policies of the future will depend on the boys and girls of today. That is why it is sometimes more important to make good ‘‘public opinion” among boys and gifts than among men and women who may be too set in their ways to change them readily. That is an obvious truth which is not sufficiently »hceded in most countries, but it is receiving full measure of attention and action in Soviet "Russia. “In some districts of Now Zealand far-seeing workers for community welfare are impressing on young folk the importance of guarding and conserving, to the utmost, the national wealth of native forest and bird-life. Much greater progress has been made in the ITftited States of America, and now Australia is having a great awakening. A “Bulletin” of the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society has, this passage: —

“Every public schoolboy in New South Wales is virtually a forest ranger. Prompted by the Australian Society of Patriots, the State Government recently declared an area of two miles adjacent every school in New South Wales a sanctuary for native birds and animals. The declaration means that, animals and birds, with the flora peculiar to Australia, must bo protected within these areas. “By declaring a two-mile sanctuary in the vicinity of every school, the Government, perhaps unwittingly, has made practically the whole of the populated portions of the State an area in which wild animals must be protected. In the - coastal districts, particularly, miles and miles of territory, •without a break, automatically becomes a sanctuary. ” “Good Little Bad Birds.” Previous articles (in comments on “Nature’s Balance”) have mentioned the importance of . considering the boon with the bane in the case of certain small birds against which farmers have waged war. Here is some food' for thought, offered by an Australian nature-lover: —

“There’s a little bit of good in

every bad little bird, even the sparrow and the starling. During a great many weeks I have been closely observing the feathered folk in my garden and can speak with authority. A wren was seen to feed its young

36 times in an hour, and tiie food she brought them consisted of aphides (grecn-fly) which had been sucking / the juice out of my rose and citrus trees, and caterpillars which had been masticating the young shoots of a highly-prized wattle. Two starlings paid 30 and 32 visits to their respective nests in f>9 minutes, with the larvae of click-beetles, rose-chafers and other beetles that do immense damage to plants. A record was established by the sparrow which made 234 trips to its nest in 3 hours 2 minutes with pests ranging from the mites which attack strawberries to the caterpillars of the privet hedge moth. Without birds the greater part of vegetation would be immediately destroyed and successful agriculture would be an impossibility.” Charm Of Native Robins. The other day I read some remarks on New Zealand’s robins, written mhny years ago by Mr James Drummond. Here is the narrative: — “Our wood robins are tame, pert, merry, and cheerful birds, and they are very partial to crumbs. In fact, in all respects, except colour they resemble the famous robin redbreast, the English favourite. There is one species for the North Island, and another for the South Island. The South Island robins may often be seen in the bush. They enter tents, hop about inside, and sometimes partake of meals on the table. They are active little fellows. They appear at the break of day, and retire when darkness comes on. They have been known to sit on a man’s body, as he lay on the ground, hopping about and picking at his watch-chain or at any other object that attracted their attention. When supplied with a greater quantity of food than they can eat at a. time, they sometimes hide, a store, and no doubt, return to it later on.” A Question Of Capital. In these days when many people are talking about capital—or the lack of it—-it is well to do some shrewd

thinking on that subject. This matter was raised two years ago by Captain Sanderson, honorary secretary of the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society. “After all, are white people really ahead of the Maori or merely trying to get where he was.?” he asked. “He had good laws, and enforced them, and understood the art of conservation which is preservation for the purpose of utilisation. The Maori lived on the interest. Nature produced. Wc live on the capital. Wo may boast of our wireless, flying machines, motor cars, etc,, but conveniently overlook the fact that Nature takes away that which we do not use as she did the use of the wings of the kakapo, weka and kiwi. In 100 years we have destroyed 90 per cent, of the forests which formed the soil upon which wo grow onr food, and a greater percentage of the bird-life which dwell therein. The Maori lived in the same country for at least 800 years and kept the forests and birds intact. Shall we eventually succumb in an insect-infested and eroded land, or bo wise in time and utilise the remnant of Ihoso gifts, which onr Creator so bounteously bestowed, not in an endeavour to benefit the immediate individual interest, but in the interests of the community as a whole in perpetuity;’”

Well, those words took me back to a day long ago when I was a small boy enjoying hours of enchantment in the last, large stand of native bush in Le Bons Bays, Banks Peninsula. Borne men had .made a start with a task of slaughter—destruction of the woods in a steeply sloping valley to make space for grass. The noise of the axes drew robins to the scene of tragedy. Four or five hopped about near mo as I sat on the mossy trunk of a dead sylvan giant. Quaintly they perked their heads at the notes of the sharp steel as it bit into the supports of their leafy home. They looked at one another, and at me. “What is it all about?” they seemed to bo thinking.

Where did they go when licit cool cloister became a roaring furnace? f can sec them still ns I write, with infinite regret for the loss of that small .stretch of forest —only thirty acres. Perhaps there are similar stands today in other districts, in similar rough country, similarly threatened. Who would not help to save those remnants?