Spare Kauris, Deputation Urges Minister

Northern Advocate, 12 February 1940, Page 3

Spare Kauris, Deputation Urges Minister

NO ASSURANCE THAT MATURE KAURIS WOULD NOT BE CUT WAS DRAWN PROM THE MINISTER FOR STATE FORESTS (MR. LANGSTONE), BY A REPRESENTATIVE DEPUTATION THAT MET HIM IN THE WHANGAREI COUNTY COUNCIL CHAMBERS ON SATURDAY NIGHT. Leader of the deputation, the chairman of the Whangarei County Council (Mr. J. A. S. Mac Kay), who represented the North Auckland Counties’ Association, said Northland had looked forward for two years to meeting the - Minister on the matter. The movement to save the remnants of the kauri forests was entirely non-political, he said. A great asset, the kauris were a matter of vital interest to the North in particular, and to the whole of the Dominion. Their commercial value was least important of all. State kauri forests and coastal scenery were considered Northland’s greatest assets. The marketing scheme, if put into effect, presented a real danger to the kauri forests, Mr. Mac Kay said.

An Experiment. The scheme was an experiment. With two exceptions not a person Mr. Mac Kay had met believed the scheme could be carried out successfully. Such schemes have never been successful, Mr. Mac Kay declared, saying they had resulted in the destruction of the forests. Experimenting should be done from the other end—beginning with experimental planting. The time to begin cutting was when new forests were growing up to take the place of trees cut. He appreciated the efforts of the Forestry Department to establish young kauri forests and wished the venture success. But he entirely disagreed with the suggestion that larger trees should be taken out. Dead Trees. There was no objection to removing dead though such a project might be uneconomical. Trees dead for 25 years or more could still yield valuable timber, he declared. “Only 10 per cent of the forests of the Auckland province remain and these should be preserved for future generations,” Mr. Mac Kay said. Timber would be more valuable in another 100 years and by that time people would know how to deal with iheir forests, Mr. Mac Kay concluded, appealing to the Minister to stay the cutting plan. Hobson County View. Mr. W. Wordsworth (Hobson) spoke of the protest meeting held some time ago in the Omahuta Forest. He regretted that so much timber had already been taken out of it. Northern Wairoa viewed its forests with jealous care. There were 9,000,000 or 10,000,000 dead trees in Waipoua that, in Mr. Wordsworth’s opinion, could be taken out. A grub that attacked kauris was found in the dead trees, which consequently constituted a danger to the living forests, he said. It was important to take out all the tree—the log and the head. If a mill were handy to the forest the whole of the tree could be used. Reafforestation Urged. He recommended a vigorous rejuvenating programme. Replanting at Trounson Park showed that this could be done successfully. Mr Wordsworth asked for an assurance that the forests of Northland would be preserved. “Take the dead trees, but take them carefully so as not to damage the remaining trees,” he said. While he agreed with the sentiments expressed by previous speakers, Mr F. MacDonald was not altogether in accord with the methods they advocated. There was no harm in taking mature trees, provided they were replaced, Mr MacDonald said. He urged upon the Minister the necessity for a strenuous planting programme. Tarts of the Omahuta Forest could be replanted with more useful bush than it is now carrying. He was of the opinion that rationed cutting would enable the present forests to last “a good while.” Twelve-Foot Girth. Trees of 9ft girth, which it was proposed to cut, were too small, and those of a 12ft girth were a better proposition economically and also from the handling point of view, Mr MacDonald said. Fire was the greatest danger to the forests and was most liable to occur where trees had been felled. “The kauri,” Mr MacDonald said, “is not a hard tree to grow; to cut it with-1 out replanting would be a shame.”

Reading a carefully prepared paper, the chairman of the North Auckland Forest Society (Mr J. D. Mitchell) said his soci'ety wished to see the forests left in their virgin state. Picture of Devastation. He painted a picture of the devastation that followed the bushman’s axe, drawing particular attention to the damage caused by flooding and land erosion.

Native birds of New Zealand were ; threatened with extinction with the passing of the forests. The Whangarei Borough Council was strongly opposed to the cutting ol \ kauris, said Mr D. J. Thomsen. ' Larger areas should be planted, but the present forests should remain, Mr Thomson said. Whangarei’s greatest asset—a big kauri forest adjacent to the town—had been destroyed many years ago, and in its place there was the liability of a -housing scheme. In reply to a question, the Mayor of Whangarei (Mr W. Jones) said the liability was real and not imaginary. From the forest the borough council had built 57 houses. In the days of the depression, rents went down and last year alone the houses cost the people of Whangarei roughly £SOO. It was necessary to pay out anything up to £SOO a year to keep the asset as good as possible, Mr Jones said. Harbour Board’s Opinion. “The only way to preserve the forests is to keep out the fire and the axe,” said the Whangarei Harbour Board chairman (Mr E. L. Whimp). The opinion of the harbour board was against the felling of kauris. Destruction caused by cutting out the forests would be greater than the value of the timber removed, he stated. Mr Whimp paid a tribute to the present Minister for assistance given in helping Northland obtain bush reserves. For the sake of posterity, Mr Whimp hoped nothing would be done to destroy the kauri trees of Northland. The proposed cutting of kauris had been discussed by the Whangarei Dairy Company directors at board meetings and also at the North Auckland Dairy Association conference, said Mr A. Clarke, who represented the Whangarei Dairy Co. Both the board and the dairy association had been unanimously in favour of the forests being preserved in their entirety, he stated. He looked to Mr Langstone to safeguard the forests. Want Northland “Different” Representing the Whangarei Ladies’ Gardening Club, Mrs W. A. Given said Northlanders wanted Northland to be different. # Kauri trees were common only to the North, and they made Northland distinctive. “We want the old kauris and we want the new kauris,” she said. Gorse, blackberry and eupatorium—and other weeds we have not yet heard of—would follow if the forests were cut down. “Do we need the timber? Is is necessary to cut it? Haven’t we other building materials?” Mrs Given asked. A written message from the Ladies’ Gardening Club asked the Minister to defer cutting until the war was over. It stated the club wanted the kauris to remain, and that their value could not be estimated in pounds, shillings and pence. Mr J. W. Parkin (Whangarei Chamber of Commerce and Acclimatisation Society) thanked the Minister for assistance given in securing bush reserves for Northland. The time had not yet arrived v/hen it was safe to experiment. Not until new forests had grown should old ones be cut. Mr Parkin asked the Minister to study the position carefully before allowing cutting to be done. “A Crying Shame” “It would be a crying shame to des- [ troy standing trees that would take many generations to replace,” said Mr F. Holman. He could not see how odd trees

could be felled without damaging the bush. Tea-tree was the foster parent of the kauri, Mr Holman explained, saying young kauris started from the edge of the bush. A grub that attacked young kauris when their shoots first appeared through the ground, did not inhabit tea-tre country. Consequently it was in tea-ree ‘planted areas that the young kauris got a start. He urged that extensive planting experiments should be made before standing bush is cut. Lovers of Kauri An assurance to the Minister that the speakers were all lovers of the kauri forests was given by Mr J. G. Earclay, M.P. for Marsden.

“The kauri is something to be proud of,” he said. He knew the Government would assist Northland to preserve its forests. Gratification that people of the North should be so “tree conscious” as the deputation demonstrated, was expressed by Mr Langstone. He wished the same spirit had been in evidence 40 years ago. The Minister was pleased to see the bush conservation moves made in Northland and believed the larger the tract conserved the better. Commercial Side. It was not possible, however, to neglect the commercial side. “I can’t say there will be no extraction,” Mr. Langstone said. He could see nothing wrong in cutting the forests so long as cutting was done rationally. A system of forest management was being put into operation and this, together with a progressive planting policy, he believed, would answer the objections of the deputation to the cutting ,and marketing of mature and dead kauris. It was impossible to estimate in pounds, shilling and pence the damage caused by soil erosion resulting from denuded forest lands, he said. Forest management would make it possible to cut out mature trees without doing major damage to forests. The dead tree in. the forest was like a coi’pse at a banquet and it should be cut out. If a tree were cut, Mr. Langstone could see no reason .against taking it out of the bush. The Minister stressed the importance of re-afforestation. In the North there were bare hills that should have been planted with trees, he said. Best River Control. Re-afforestation provided the best system of river control. The future, he said, should be a matter of forest management and reafforestation. The policy should be to cut, and heal trees damaged by the falling of other trees. Such a scheme would give forests iu perpetuity, Mr. Langstone said. He pointed out that the exotic plantations had been established to provide material that would save New Zealand indigenous timbers. Mr. Langstone disagreed with speakers who maintained that a planting policy should first be undertaken and cutting deferred for a century. Cut and Plant Policy. He was prepared to associate his department with people who had the welfare of forests at heart—such as those making up the personnel of the deputation—and if the present plant and cut policy w,as proving a failure, it would be stopped. Fire, he agreed, constituted a very real risk, but the Forestry Department was doing all in its power towards fire prevention.