NATURE—AND MAN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 1 September 1934, Page 10

NATURE—AND MAN

THE BATTLE FOR BEAUTY VICTORY IN SIGHT (Edited by Leo Fanning) While ♦ laboured with a pen To write a lyric that would sing, • A lark with ease inscribed a rhyme Upon the sky with circling wing. I searched for beauty in the grass, Where tiny creatures were content To point out in humility The secret way that beauty went. I shaped a metre with such care That music measured where I wrote: Yet all I fashioned, and far more, ! Sounded in one bird’s careless note, j —Eleanor Chaffee in the “Christian Science Monitor.”

A solid majority ill Parliament seems to be assured for the Native Plants Protection Bill which should be passed this session. A few selfish persons may scheme against the measure, but the Government lias the definite assurance that the necessary legislation has tlie whole-hearted support of New Zealand's people in the mass. If it were possible to “count heads” on the question, the tally would probably show all the young folk and some hundreds of thousands of adults in favour of the proposals, and only a few hundreds—perhaps only a few score—against.

When "the Bill becomes law, it will need strong courageous enforcement. ’During many years there has been much raiding of public and private forests. From one district alone —the native bush at the back of Paraparaumu and Paekakariki, Wellington pro-vince-thousands of young ririiu (red pine) trees have been stolen. roads through forests Whenever stern necessity requires the cutting, of a road through native forest in New Zealand, the utmost care should be taken to minimise the damage, for this country’s woods are particularly sensitive. In North America, where the trees are not so easily shocked, the making of roads through realms of nature,is done sympathetically. “Conservation of the inherent beauty of the forest is the most vital console! ation in locating and constructing essentia) forest roads,” remarks Emerson Knight in “American Forests.” “C, Hen recreation is the prime objective, the routing of the woodland course should be conducive to the fullest. enjoyment of its.scenery. But when any road built for either fast or slow travel is so treated as to destroy in any marked degree the primeval forest in its original state, the resulting highway will tend to defeat its purpose. When a road' passes through private holdings it is important to secure a right-of-way wide enough to ensure a lasting forest picture on both sides, even after the adjoining private timber is felled. Scenic easements might aid in solving such problems.” “MOXGRELISM” IN PLANTATIONS ill- Will Appleton, a well-known business man of Wellington, where he is a member of the City Council, gave seme helpful impressions of a world tour to' members of the Ratepayers' Association recently; “Parks and reserves were developed in Great Britain along native lines,” he said. “More could be done hr this way in Wellington.” This remark could apply also to plenty of other places in New Zealand. However, probably Wellington is the chief offender against Nature. Consider, for example, the Botanic Gardens. Here Nature has some beautiful stands of native trees and shrubs in several gullies. Man saw what Nature could do in this locality, but what did he do? He splogged the landscape with gloomy alien firs and pines mingled haphazardly with “natives”— in an unsightly higgledy-piggledy. Other black blots of pines mar flanks and ridges of hills which would have given comfortable homes to poliutukawa (the noble • “Christmas-tree” which flashes info crimson in high-sum-mer) and the graceful kowhai, whose ■pendants of honeyed gold are beloved by bell-birds and tuis. TRAPPING OF KIWIS A correspondent of the Native Bird (and Forest) Protection Society again reports that fatal trapping of many kiwis by opossum hunters.in forests of the West Coast,. South Island; What a curse, in various ways, those foreign opossums are proving! They are a nuisance to trees and birds (particularly during the nesting season) and trapping time brings other mischief. In view of some persons (seeking profit), the native forests are merely ideal “opossum farms,” but that notion is utterly against national welfare. Unless effective measures are taken 'promptly against these pests they will get beyond control., PENALTIES OF PROGRESS Pollution of the sea by oil, which causes a lingering death for many birds, is one of the penalties of progress in invention, which lias also spread ugliness over many landscapes and has fouled many rivers. New Zealand has legislation prohibiting the release of oil wastes in territorial waters, but experience has proved that the “three-mile limit” does not save the coastal waters from poisonous messes, ’therefore the New Zealand Habour Boards’ Association is requesting that the scope of the Act should extend to 50 miles from the coasts. The reasonableness of this plea is supported by the fact that America’s ban against oil reaches to a line a hundred miles f 1 om the coasts. . A NOBLE BIRD-LOVER

Dr. Axel Munthe, whose beautiful words of bird-lore have touched many thousands of hearts in many countries, was worthily honoured recently in London at a luncheon of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Here is one report of the gathering: — “It. was announced that Dr. Munthe, who is almost blind and has suffered severely from insomnia for the past five months, would not be subjected to the ordeal- of addressing the audience of more- than 1.000 persons, including such celebrities as George Bernard Slrn'w. E. V. Lucas, Walter de la. Mare, and James Stephens. Dr. Munthe was so moved, by the tributes paid to him for his establishing of a bird sanctuary on the island of Capri and for otherwise aiding in the. preservation of bird lib' that lie rose—a frail, bearded figure wearing dark glasses—and spoke graciously for a few minutes, lie cliai'aeteiised the gathering as ‘Soldiers fighting a holy war against ignorance ami cruelty’.” “Mr Shaw hailed Dr. Munthe as one

of the few persons who had made themselves speak for the conscience of mankind. He declared that Dr. Munthe had had almost to ‘commit murder’ to make Capri a bird sanctuary, and he lamented the fact that there was no similar sanctuary for humans. “ ‘Although there are arrangements for shooting men on a large as possible scale,’ Mr Shaw said ‘nobody has started any protection-for-humans sanctuary where they cannot be shot. I am not at all sure that this cult of making a sport of bird slaughter has not a lot to do with the sport of kings—the slaughter of men’.”