NATURE AND MAN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 2 April 1938, Page 10

NATURE AND MAN

V LOSING NEW ZEALAND | SCOURING AWAY TO SEA (Edited by Leo Fanning) I All the year round, year after year, some of the best soil of New Zealand is going out to sea. mainly because protective forests on steep watersheds have been stupidly cut away or burnt. I had some sad thoughts on that matter recently when I strolled on the beaches of Sumner and New Brighton ia few miles from Christchurch) after an absence of ten years from those beautiful shores. I noticed that the combined channel of the Avon and Heathcote rivers at Sumner had changed its course and that sand had drifted up to the level of the old pier ; decking to which yachts were moored long ago. I noticed that the beach level had also risen astonishingly at Brighton. Why? There were no breakwaters or similar structures to explain an alteration of the drift of sand as at Caroline Bay (Timaru) which owes its splendid , crescent of smooth strand to the Harbour Board’s big thrust of stone into the ocean. A little meditation led me to blame the Waimakariri and Ashley rivers, especially the turbulent “Wai- 1 | mak” (as Canterbury folk usually call it). The loads of soil and rubble taken to sea by those rivers must have increased enormously during the past decade. The fine soil would drift out | and mostly sink in deep water and the heavy material would be pounded and ground into sand by waves on the coast. I was strengthened in that belief by a glance through one of the Forest and Bird Protection Society's files. Not long ago there was some agitation against the action of the Hon. F. Langstone (Minister of Lands and Forests) who | had decided that the Government ' ! should take over some areas of poor pastoral country (previously leased) on! the lower slopes of the Alps. and j which would be properly allowed to ; revert to forest. This commonsense policy has been advocated for many j years by thoughtful New Zealanders. Here is a press report of the Minister's 1 J justification for his soil-saving policy: | “Even to the most casual observer it was not difficult to see the damage done by denuding the hills of their forest ; j covering. At Arthur’s Pass might be j ! seen on one side of the railway line j the hills in the permanent State Forest ! protected by a dense growth of native i bush, and on the other side the stark, | ; barren hills on private land, where the j slasher, axe, and fire stick had destroyed the native covering, allowing the heavy rains to erode the hillside into deep watercourses and bring down thousands of tons of sbil, rock, and shingle into the Waimakariri river, which river carried the deposits downstream. thereby raising the bed and causing the river to change its course and do untold damage to farm lands on I ewer levels.” Farmers on the lower levels—the districts known as "the granary of New j Zealand”—should be very grateful to the Minister for that soil-saving policy. GORSE IS WINNING During a drive through the charming • 1 outskirts of Dunedin I was very sur- | prised to see a long stretch of hill overrun by gorse. It was rather a kind of shock, for one does not associate waste with Scots folk, who have been often ; praised for the good management of their city. I asked whether the blame could be put upon an absentee landlord, but my driver did not know. Gorse is on similar conquering onsets in many other places. “The in- : spec-tors have not sufficient power to compel occupiers to control gorse,” said one of the speakers at a conference of Canterbury local bodies a few • months ago. Mr A. H. Cockayne (Director of the • Department of Agriculture) said there i were large areas of gorse-infected country along the foothills. It was be- : yond the power of the individual to I put the matter right, but he had no idea whether the Government would ! resume the land. He thought the meet--1 ing should set up an organisation to bring the problem before the Govern- ; ment. It appeared that the Government was required to provide the ■ j means and it was the job of the conI ference to persuade the Government that the work was necessary. A : definite policy of co-ordinated nature ! was necessary for infected country to , be effectively treated and brought back 1 -nlo production, he said. One visualised ‘ the larger areas being under the control of the State Forest Service and the smaller areas controlled by the county councils. Meanwhile, alas, the gorse goes on spreading. IN ENGLAND With reservations about the gorse. whose golden bloom is a sign of peril for "Brighter Britain,” readers will like these verses of Marion Campbell (from 1 The Christian Science Monitor”): J If I could be in England now, A leafy path in front of me. I Would move forward silently And touch a little silver tree. Prom the cross roads the pines would j bring j The sound of wide seas opening. The glistening dew belongs to me, j The cool grass and the lowing herds. Mine is the grandeur of the oak, ; The trembling music of the birds. 1 Those vales on which the sun looks down With changing shadows are mine own. j 7 he gorse that turns our common ways' I Into a vision is ablaze, i Ancl further than my feet can reach j I There lies a lawny Devon beach. Does the wind blow and is there still . A harebeel waving on the hill? I know a narrow sloping path Gnarled by the hidden roots of trees. Where one can see the bracken grow. ; And through a gap the bluebell seas. J ‘ VPon a green and tangled bough • fs there a blackbird singing now, j Binging now—in England?