NATURE—AND MAN

Southland Times, Issue 22203, 21 December 1933, Page 14

NATURE—AND MAN

CALL OF THE WILD INSPIRATION FOR EVERYBODY. (Edited by Leo Fanning.) Many famous poets and other writers have reminded humanity that Nature can be a miraculous friend when the heart is heavy and the mind clouded with care. Modern developments are helping people to get that marvellous medicine from the “Great Mother.” Dr T. Gilbert Pearson, president of the National Association of Audubon Societies (U.S.A.) —which function in the same way as the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society—remarked recently:— “Thousands of bird-lovers and nature students, whose habit it is to spend idle hours afield in pursuit of favourite avocations, will put to good account the increased leisure that is certain to be a chief characteristic of the new <fay which is dawning out of the social and economic disorder of the time. These bird-loving enthusiasts, with field glass, notebook, and camera, are more and more turning for contentment and recreational delight to our ever-inticing countryside with its fields and woodlands, its highways and byways. Whereas a generation ago such persons were rare and perhaps regarded with something of pity or a suspicion, today they are in good repute and constitute an ever-increasing army.” Of course, such seekers of Nature’s cure would not spoil wayside beauty nor snatch away flowers or ferns from, the forest. They would not be like the persons (a man and his wife) depicted in an issue of “Punch” this year. They are each shown with an armful of wild flowers, and the woman says:— “Well, Walter, I think we have picked everything. We must come here again next year.” The artist did not make those type look lovable. The man was fatfaced and chinless with a ridiculous dab of moustache on an ugly lip. The woman was rabbit-mouthed and popeyed—just the sort of person that would desecrate a place of beauty. A well-informed contributor to the “New Zealand Railways’ Magazine” impressively draws attention to the opossum, as an enemy of the native forest. “Much has been written of the ravages caused by deer in the forest,” he states. “The opossum is a far greater peril and nuisance, because its ways are more furtive, its bush-spoiling less obvious to the casual eye. Experienced bushmen know all about it; one veteran sawmilling man tells me that he considers the opossum is the greatest enemy the birds have. Not only does it feed on the very things on which the birds are accustomed to subsist, but it

molests the birds in their nests, especially at breeding time, and eats nestlings and eggs. The ancient balance of nature in the forest is seriously disturbed; and the struggle of native life for existence is all but hopeless. In my belief the issue has come to this point now, that New Zealanders must decide which they prefer as inhabitants of the forest, the tui and the bcllbird, the pigeon and the kaka and their kin, or the predatory opossum. There is no hope for the birds unless protection is completely removed from the opossum and free trapping permitted everywhere.”

A French visitor, Dr R. Chevalier, who toured New Zealand recently, gave some comments and opinions to the newspapers. “Your natural forests,” he said, “should not become tree-ceme-teries under the pompous names of scenic reserves national parks or even reserved state forests. ... A well-con-sidered forest management will take cognisance of the needs of the Treasury, which means the needs of all New Zealand citizens, and will bring about the removal of all dead and damaged trees and all malformed nature trees.”

That kind of talk may apply to the forests of France, but it is sheer nonsense in reference to New Zealand’s forests which have their own special character. They do not like molestation by man or animals. They are very sensitive to interference. Nature, in her management of the forests during a million years or more, did her work well. Dead wood helps eventually to feed living trees. The real “needs of all New Zealand citizens”—present and prospective—require conservation, not commercial exploitation, of certain important areas of native forest. Give Nature a fair chance against vandals and careless fire-raisers and destructive animals, and she will take care of her own. “Leave well alone,” as the old proverb has it. In these days of financial stringency the State Forest Service may be tempted to do a disservice to the native woods by a scheme of “management” which would seek a temporary gain of money to the detriment of forest-wel-fare. North Auckland Acclimatization Societies, are agitating for the removal of protection from the weka, which is accused of eating pheasants’ eggs. Therefore the sportsmen wish that war should be waged against the weka. On this matter Captain E. V. Sanderson, president of the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society, gives a reminder that one of the functions of the weka in nature is to inflict penalities on mother birds who do not attend properly to their incubation duties. The skua gull acts in the same way to punish family carelessness among penguins. In this manner the weka and the skua promote efficiency, because their ap- 1

petite is fed by only the inefficient strains. On the sanctuary of Kapiti a hen pheasant sitting fifteen eggs, was surrounded by wekas, but she _ stuck closely to her incubation task, with the assistance of her mate, and she did not lose one egg. It is possible, too, that wekas may be blamed for far more egg-eating than they commit. The real cause of decline in numbers of pheasants may be excessive shooting. The results of gunmen’s tolls of bird-life are sometimes charged to hawks, shags and wekas. However, it is much more important for New Zealand to protect wekas than pheasants. Economically, the weka has a greater value than the pheasant, but it has to be said for this imported game-bird that it is also useful. _ Its war on insect pests—particularly crickets—should commend it to the farmer who should not be eager to grant shooting permits.