The Northern Advocate Daily “NORTHLAND FIRST” WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1939. A Road to Omahuta

Northern Advocate, 25 January 1939, Page 6

The Northern Advocate Daily “NORTHLAND FIRST”

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1939. A Road to Omahuta

THERE is some reason to suspect that the Pnikcti State Forest will not he the only kauri reserve to he attacked by the Government under the new policy of “managed marketing,” which was the subject of a letter to the “Advocate” recently from the Hon. Frank Langstone, Commissioner of State Forests.

In addition to the road which is being led into the Puketi Forest from the Okaihau-Rangiahua Road, another road has been formed to give access to the Omahuta Forest. This road bears off to the right from the Mangamuka Road, and strikes right into the heart of one of the most beautiful stands of kauri left in the North. It is a metalled road, with a turning-circle at the end of it, and the public of Northland has a right to know what function it is intended to serve.

At present a gang of men are employed taking out posts and battens from an old kauri-working alongside the forest, but visitors are left with the impression that the next stage may be the cutting of green trees in accordance with the policy enunciated by Mr Langstone. , : ;j

i Apart from Trounson Park, which was a gift (and a very generous one) to the people of New Zealand, and is presumably adequately protected against any mercenary policies formulated by Government departments, it appears that not one of the State kauri reserves will be immune from attack.

Waipoua, Puketi, Omahuta, and Whangape all of these beautiful reserves, the last remnants of our'glorious Northland forest—will, under this policy of “managed marketing,” be divested year by year of noble trees, for the sake of an amount of revenue which will be ridiculously small for the national loss represented by their removal.

It is time some organised and vehement public protest was made against this official vandalism. The kauri forests are a trust in perpetuity which the State Forest Service has no moral right to exploit for immediate ends.

■- It is idle to suggest that the removal of green trees will not damage the forests. Operations on the scale visualised under the Department’s * ‘five-year programme” (which contemplates the extraction from the Puketi Forest of 1,500,000 board feet per year up to 1940, and at least 3,000,000 board feet a year in subsequent years up to 1946), will leave ineffaceable sears, damage numerous trees, not actually felled, and open the way for the intrusion of noxious weeds and other plant pests.

In view of these considerations, it would be interesting to have from Mr Langstone a general defence or justification of his Department’s policy. Presumably there are arguments in its favour, and the public is entitled to hear them.

Mr C. W. BosAvell, M.P. for Bay of Islands, should have a particular interest in this question, and he would be conferring a favour on his constituents as well as on the people of Northland generally, if he would take the matter up immediately with the Commissioner, in order that it may be fully debated with a knowledge of all the points involved.