THE NATIVE BUSH AT POUNAWEA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22257, 9 May 1934, Page 2

THE NATIVE BUSH AT POUNAWEA

TO THE EDITOB. Sib,—l trust that the people of Owaka will not allow the lovely piece of native bush that borders the Catlins River and also the Owaka River, and lies at the back of Pounawea, to be cut down and for ever destroyed. What will their children and their grandchildren say if, when looking around them, they see only bare hills? Where is the lovely green, bush that grew on the slopes of Jacob s Hill and covered its crown and was reflected in the calm waters of the Owaka and Catlins Rivers? Where have the giant totara, rimu, and matai and other native trees gone that graced the brow of Osbornes Hill and never should have been laid low by the axe? Gone, gone, alas! for ever, as has such a lot of our beautiful bush that should have been kept. What will visitors to Pounawea say? What will they think when one day they arrive and find the trees laid low, the ferns a smoking ruin, and everything desolate on the terrace above Pounawea? Even later on when possibly green grass covers the earth, will this ever compensate for the trees that Nature has lavished on us so abundantly, and which in most other places are quite suitable to be used and cut clown for the benefit of mankind, but in this one spot should certainly be preserved for the benefit oS, posterity? Where would we ever get auother place so richly endowed by Nature as Pounawea, '• The Meeting of the Waters," " The Fishing Place of the Fairies " —the place where the Maoris loved to meet and cook their birds and fish and lead such a carefree existence, with rivers iu front and wonderful bush at the back and overlooking the sea? Where will the song of the tm and bellbird be heard as it is now, if this bush is cut down? Where else, I ask the people of Owaka and surroundings districts, will they get auother place so worthy of» being preserved for all time? They cannot do it; it is the only patch, decently large, that can now be saved. It is the only bush that is of easy access to the public and that borders Jwo rivers. As surely as this bush is allowed to go, it will be too late, and then those who will come in ever-increasing numbers to beautiful Pounawea will ask "Why was there no one to do anything? "~I am, etc., Nature Lover.