TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, Ist JUNE, 1938. UPSETTING NATURE.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4055, 1 June 1938, Page 4

TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, Ist JUNE, 1938. UPSETTING NATURE.

COMMENT by the Minister of Public Works upon the man-made blunders for which the Dominion is paying today in flood losses and soil erosion is most arresting. Mr Semple had before him a deputation from the East Coast requesting State financial assistance in repairing flood damage, and, in reply, the Minister remarked that the problem thus raised was a most gigantic one, as “if a portion of New Zealand’s valuable farm land is not to be washed into the Pacific the country is faced with a tremendous expenditure.” Mr Gilmour, engineer to the Waiapu County, thereupon remarked that the trouble would be continuous until afforestation was carried out in that county. Rejoined Mr Semple in characteristic language:

Yes, we have done most stupid things, never giving Na cure a chance to function until she has turned on us, and we arc paying for our stupidity and wrestling •with man-made blunders.

The fact is that knowledge of the most vital importance to New Zealand, whether from the point of view of the protection of farmlands, the preservation of wild life, or the salvation of the scenic attractions of the Dominion, has been accumulated slowly, by a system of trial and error. It has to be remembere-d that in the long run the progress of any country. sometimes, indeed, its very existence, will depend on what its inhabitants do with its natural resources, particularly its soil. History 7 has shown that the misuse, or abuse, of the surface of the land may lead to the loss of natural fertility and eventually to the lapse of whole

regions into an unproductive wilderness. The recent floods on the East Coast were typical examples of the destructive nature of the precess. The lack of foresight displayed in the past is now apparent in several directions. It Js, perhaps, best exemplified in the milling operations which, practically during the full course of the modern history of this Dominion, have ravaged the land of its forest covering, the uncontrolled activities of acclimatisation societies in an earlier day than the present, which account for the widespread devastation by deer of the forest ranges in many parts of New Zealand, and the indiscriminate clearing of bush by the earlier generation of settlers, have added their quota to the problem. The recent floods on the East Coast, which have cost probably millions of pounds in damage, and, it has been suggested, the tragedy which overtook a Public Works camp at Kopuawhara, were due to, or at any rate accentuated by, short-sighted abolition of the forests in the areas drained by the rivers. The question of river control, even here in the Te Awamutu and Otorohanga districts by reasons of the water-courses becoming blocked by willow growth, is one which, as Mr Semple suggests, must be met, and it is going to involve the Dominion in a very heavy expense. Incidental to this question it is necessary again to consider another, namely, whether the denuding of forest areas is not still proceeding over-recklessly. In the last three years of which figures are available—l 933 to 1936—the production of sawn timber in the Dominion was 734,512,000 feet. Of this total, State milling accounted for 274,950,000 feet. It must be assumed that the operations of the State, under the direction of the Forest Service, have nor been injurious, and the Minister in charge of State Forests was able to show, the other day, that outside its own territories the department has done much to controlling milling. The fact remains, however, that, on a calculation of the average footage yield per acre in New Zealand at 10,000, the extent of forest land which was denuded in three years is 73,452 acres. Against this figure must be set 426.000 acres of exotic State, forests, and a total area uricler forest reservation of approximately 8,000,000 acres, or nearly 12 per cent, of the superficial area of the Dominion. The timber production figures suggest that milling is proceeding on an ascending scale, and so long as a demand for

Now Zealand timber exists, it will be met. If, as Mr Semple estimates, there is a need for the expenditure of up to £8,000,000 in New Zealand on river control, it is evident that no inquiry into this problem can be adequate which does not include within its scope the necessity for the proper regulation of milling operations and the provision of afforestation on a well-controlled national scale.