Nature and Man

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 1 July 1939, Page 17

Nature and Man

A MATTER OF DUTY

EVERYBODY SHOULD BE A PUBLIC j TRUSTEE (Edited by Leo Fanning) The average New Zealander knows—or should know—something of the pur- . pose and functions of the Public Trust j Office, which is concerned with the j management and administration of j private estates. Yet there is a very j much more important public trusteeship than anything which comes with- ; in the work of the Public Trust Office; ' it is the public trusteeship of natural resources, particularly native forests j which protect steep watersheds and prevent the demon of erosion from ; destroying the fertile suxface of vitally ’ necessary farming country. People living in New Zealand to-day are life tenants. They have no right to | spoil natural assets which their j descendants should be able to use and enjoy. There will be a big fall in the number of forest fires and other acts of carelessness, stupidity or selfishness if every New Zealander keeps saying to himself or herself, “I am a public trustee; I am a trustee of natural resources, such as beautiful native forests and birds; I must act in a manner to induce posterity to bless me, not curse me.” The people to-day have plenty of cause to curse some of the persons whose operations have destroyed substantial portions of the country’s natural capital, and have thus reduced its people-carrying capacity. That sort of misconduct is really treason to the State. “DING” DARLING’S WISDOM Those remarks on the most important kind of public trusteeship are supported by statements of the distinguished American conservationist, Jay N. Darling, better known as “Ding” Darling. “Political scientists and economists,” he wrote, “have devised formulae for wealth, and labour has claimed to be its sole creator, but none has paused long enough to observe that without natural organic resources there would have been no labour, no political scientists, no wealth and no human life. “Can it be that all our planning and hope of prosperity is based on the false assumption that nature's resources are inexhaustible? Crumbling ruins where ancient civilisations once prospered would indicate that other races and other nations before us have miscalculated their wealth, and regenerated to poverty because of the same error our economists are now making. “Boiled down to the fundamental truth, the history of civilisation, since man was created, is largely made up of the rise and fall of empires through the exhaustion of resources. History, therefore, in reality turns out to be the story of hungry man in search of food. Conservation is the job of so managing our soils, waters, and gifts of nature on this continent of ours that man's search for these necessities shall not be in vain. “If we do neglect conservation as history has ignored it in the past, and any considerable portion of our population does search in vain for existence we shall have increasing poverty, social upheavals and, in spite of our high ideals and worship of peace, we shall have more wars instead of fewer, for wars are the spawn of empty stomachs, and empty stomachs follow —as the night the day—the excess of demand for natural resources over the supply.” FIRE OR FORESTRY? The April issue of “American Forests” (a very helpful magazine) had several special articles which warned the people of the United States of America that the instinct of selfpreservation must compel them to do far more than they are doing now to

save their forests from fire and other causes of destruction. "Every voting citizen who knows the situation and does not demand action to rectify it is as guilty as the well-informed legislator who says we can't afford such protection,” wrote Charles Sprague, Governor of Oregon. “Afford it! Can any intelligent people afford the conditions that follow from the lack of a well-supported forest protection policy? Can we afford to economise now when it will mean loss of wealth for decades and, in some cases, centuries to come? The fault lies with people who demand millions in expenditure for highways and other development but little or nothing for the protection of the basic resources which makes possible those expenditures. We are not killing the goose that lays the golden eggs—we are slowly burning her up!” “THAT CIGARETTE” The moon and stars are dim, but there is light Where creeping tongues of flame are spitting forth A burning scarlet flood across the night And threatening twilit forests to the north. The gray smoke boils in thick clouds overhead And fills the valleys with a seething mass Which follows where the wayward wind has led Through narrow gorge and hidden mountain pass. The red flames leave destruction in their track For trees like fallen soldiers heap the trails With bare and ugly bodies—fire charred —black— With smoke still clinging to them in giay veil . This mountain side—destroyed— wili not forget The man who tossed aside that cigarette. —Margaret Lentz, in “American Forests.”