Readers Write

Northern Advocate, 28 January 1939, Page 8

Readers Write

* I was deeply grieved on passing along the Helena Bay road I'ast week to see a pile of young kauri rikas p r esum a bly

DESTRUCTION OF YOUNG KAURIS.

waiting for transport ' t o

Hikurangi for mine props.

It is not long ago since there was an outcry about the same thing hap- j penihg-along the road between Kiri-, paka and Nguguru. Mr’ Ediior, can nothing be done to' appeal to the better instincts of the owners of these beautiful young trees to prevent slaughter like this? It may take a young rika from 30 to 50 years to grow big enough for mine props. If it is not destroyed in infancy like this, and if it receives the protection of lovers of nature, it will eventually grow into one of the grand and noble specimens that here and there ,grace our few remaining kauri forests. I would suggest that the local bodies make a public appeal to* owners of these trees to have them guarded and protected.—“TßEE LOVER.”

Those who travel along the roads of Northland will, if they are observant, see many .areas of beautiful

PRESERVE NORTHLAND'S FORESTS.

native bush apart i from the few re- 3 maining kauri |

forests, still in ' their primeval condition. Notable i amongst them are the Mangamuka,! the Herekino and Broadwood ranges,' various 'areas in the Hokianga coun-| ty, the Omahuta and Puketi forests,, the Waihbu Valley, portions of the | Tangiahua Ranges, the Ngaiotonga Range bordering on the Russell road, the Mimiwhangata watershed, and many others. These are but a -few of the many areas that have not yet been desecrated by the axe and the saw. For variety of plant and tree life and for natural beauty they are completely satisfying to the lover of nature. In some of the forests mentioned there are extensive coves of punga •ferns that add grace and charm to the scene. The streams rising frdhi the upper reaches wind their way through the gullies and hills, their beds strewn with rocks, boulders or pebbles, their mirrored surfaces reflecting the woods and ferns overhanging them.

Northland’s beauty in bush and stream may be equalled, but cannot be, r , On ; the other; hand there are vast clearings once covered in bush that are now bearers of fern, tea-tree and scrub, the hillsides bare and scarred with innumerable 1 slips—the once beautiful bush has given place to ugliness and uselessness.

Slips are increasing almost daily. With nothing to hold it up, the surface gives way particularly during rain and the once beautiful forestcovered land becomes scarred with bare patches, the erstwhile surface soil on its way to the gullies and valleys below filling up the beds of the streams, raising the water courses and being carried out to sea.

Nothing yet known to man will hold up the hillsides but the bush, nature’s covering, and we have now nothing to look forward to as far as the hills are concerned but to see them gradually slipping to the lowlands. What a tragedy!

Literally hundreds of thousands ot acres of hillsides have been started on their downward course through the destruction of the original bush. While the “natural bush covered the hillsides it cooled the climate, attracted the rain, conserved 'the water, balanced the temperature, increased bird life, and gave charm and beauty to the countryside, and now what?—fern, tea-tree, gorse, scrub, weeds of all kinds and starred surfaces. Where is the pasture that the destroyers of the forests expected to get? Gone with the ashes.

When the ashes from the bush burns disappeared much of the. grass disappeared with it. Man’s worst investment was the destruction of the bush on his hillsides.

Too late, however, he has realised it but not too late for him to preserve the remaining forest. While any land in Northland remains unproductive no more bush should be felled. This should become an unwritten law among bush owners. Consider the Esk Valley. Once picturesque bushclad hills and valleys, denuded of their forests, waterworn, the bare unprotected earth facing the sun and wind are now sucsumbing to (atmospheric changes and causing dust storms. From bush to dust! Will the day come when wq, too. will have dust storms in Northland? We have approximately 7395 farm holdings, absorbing about twothirds of the total area of 3J million acres, a large percentage of which is producing fern, tea-tree, gorse artd scrub.

What we want is an understanding to fell no more bush, replant as much as we can in native forest trees and induce more settlement in order that the ugliness of the scrub-covered land may be converted into productive farms and picturesque homesteads.— “NORTHLANDER.”

fjiHE Queensland bowling tourists defeated the Nelson representatives by 149 points to 126. The local team comprised representatives from every club in the district. The visitors travelled to Blenheim yesterday.