The Northern Advocate Daily “NORTHLAND FIRST” SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 1939 Only God Can Make A Tree

Northern Advocate, 28 January 1939, Page 8

The Northern Advocate Daily “NORTHLAND FIRST”

SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 1939 Only God Can Make A Tree

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper

ALTHOUGH the inexorable- march of settlement has removed from Northland’s hills and valleys all but a fraction of the beautiful forest that once covered nearly the whole peninsula from coast to coast, there are still large areas of bush left, both in public reserves and in private ownership, but these should be jealously guarded. .. , 7 \ve nave endeavoured, in recent issues, to draw attention to the threat to the kauri forests represented by the new policy of “managed marketing,” which is simply the steady extraction and sale of timber by the inste&d. of /by private individuals ? but public interest in the remaining tracts of bush should not be limited to the preservation of these large kauri reserves. There are many other areas of bush, large and small, in which kauri does not predominate which give charm and variety to Northland’s scenery, and only for incontestable reasons should their reduction be permitted. While it is unhappily true that there has been much stupid and unnecessary destruction of bush, it is also true that many individuals have had the good sense to realise the value of preserving areas of bush on their properties. It is to the credit of many Northland farmers that they have recognised the danger of destroying hush on high ridges or steep faces. If there was any previous nnawareness of this danger, events of the past few years have drawn salutary attention to it, for such calamities as the Esk Valley disaster, attributable without any doubt to extensive timber-milling activities in the high country where the Esk River has its source, leave no excuse foi misunderstandings about the consequences mf indiscriminate denudation, of watershed ridges. i. Apart from the utilitarian aspect of the matter, patches oi bush and clumps of trees relieve the landscape to such an extent that Northland undoubtedly owes much of its scenic charm to the profusion of trees in certain areas. Here, again, credit is due to those property-owners who tor reasons of personal pride have preserved areas of bush or individual trees. On many a Northland farm there are kauri trees which would realise quite a lot of money if felled and sawn, but they are cherished dike family heirlooms, and no English squire could be prouder of his oaks and elms than, are these settlers of the. trees that grace their farms. It will come as a shock to many, however, to learn that young kauri trees are being cut at Helena Bay for use as pit props. Wattle and other quite commonplace and. easily grow timber serves just as well for the mines, and it therefore seems deplorable that an aristocrat among timbers should be put to this use, especially when the trees are cut in their infancy. Though the mines cannot do without timber, the mine owners would .surely not subscribe to the needless destruction of kauri trees, and they could prevent it by insisting that other timber be used. • • '>

There is one sure safeguard against the forces of vandalism, and that is an informed and sensitive public opinion, conscious of the beauty with which nature has endowed the, countryside, and quick to protest against any developments which may threaten it. There are. two characteristic types of Northland scenery —the one drab and desolate-looking, where scrub predominates,' the other full of interest on account of a profusion of trees.

There are, no doubt, hundreds of Northland people to whom the grandeur of standing bush, or the park-like expanses dotted with puriri and young totara trees, have become such a commonplace that they no longer excite comment. But to visitors from the South, more often accustomed to pines and gum trees, thes|i scenes evoke spontaneous admiration. Let every one of us> then, take a personal pride in these characteristic features of our scenery. Every native tree laid low is a loss to the district.