DISAPPEARING BUSH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19622, 4 May 1938, Page 3

DISAPPEARING BUSH

DESTRUCTION DEPLORED I _ INFLUENCE ON CLIMATE CRITICISM BY VISITOR Disappointment that New Zealand had allowed a great part of its forests to be destroyed was expressed in Auckland by Canon E. A. Gowring, canon of Bristol, who has been making a tour of the Dominion after an absence of over 45 years. He said one of the greatest changes he had noticed was the denudation of the bush. "Once," said Canon Gowring, "the drive from Blenheim to Nelson was one of the most beautiful in the country. Now it is one of the most depressing. The destruction of the bush is responsible; to-day there is just waste and brambles. In Westland and Southland the same thing is taking place—the indiscriminate cutting and destruction of the bush. All along the roads you can see whitened trunks, mutely pointing heavenward in silent protest at the wantonness of man. "I am sure, too," said Canon Gowring, "that the rivers are much smaller than they used to be. This destruction of the forest also means drought and flood because there is not the bush to absorb the moisture and then to give it off gradually. Nor would I be surprised to find that the facial eczema among sheep in the Waikato has been ca"used bv changes in the climate brought on by the destruction of the trees, for there has been nothing to prevent the grass growing as in a hotbed. "There is also the effect On bird life to be considered," he said." In the old davs one of the greatest joys and beauties of the New Zealand? countryside was the song of the tuis and bellbirds and other native birds. To-day they have largely disappeared, because the cutting-down of the bush has deprived them of their native food."