NATURE AND MAN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 169, 22 July 1935, Page 6

NATURE AND MAN

NEED OF WILDNERNESS FOR PEACE AND QUIETNESS. I (Edited by Leo. Fanning.) How oft one hears the phrases: “ibis is the age of noise.'’ The craze for jazz was a reaction against leal music and a. deliberate preierence of noise. Plenty of people have their radio seta switched on all day and far into the night—sometimes a*il night. J i seems that they would be uneasy, 'aguely troubled with a tense of loss, unless they have some kind of noise about them. Many folk believe that the devil, wandering through the world with his temptations of men and women, carrier his hell with him. Science has made it possible for man to trail the world at his heel, hitch it to his house, and hear tbe noises of the continents and the seven seas. This enables the devil to have a thought similar to Swinburne’s expression: “And Evil saith to Good: ‘Aly brother, my brother, 1 am one with thee! ’ ’* Tied to tha World's Wheels. It is queer that so many millions of peuph) in the wide world dread a period of quietness. The mere notion of quiet thought would appal them. They uv not wish to read, unless the matter is fliinsily superiicial or sensational. A while ago 1 read a little news- 1 paper article Headed “Don'ts for Girl Campers,” which contained this pua»age. • ••Don’t forget that the up-to-date camper includes a wireless set in the * amp equipment. The aerial is slung between two treev. ’’ Cuuld a mure staggering sacrilege l,e perpetrated in the sylvan realm 01 I’anj When be saw those girl campers turning into his kingdom, i'an forgot about the up-to-dateness. Foolish Pan! He thought that they had wearied of Ibe worrying, Hurrying tvond a’>u sough* peace for a space among tbe dryads and naiad* who minister to man though they are not visible to ordinary eyes. So he Ordered the fairies to put more music into tbe little rills playing among the ferns and incases, and the trees were told to give tneir immemorial melody—but the up ’o-daters preferred coon choruses and the queer cachinnation of the saxophones. But perhaps The girls decided io be out of date and declined to obey that “Don't forget the wireless set.” A Necessary Reaction. This is not the world’s first «ra Ihe compound hie. '1 he past two thousand years have ‘•etn many periods too of the complex life, followed by the simple, which has '•ome m its turn, if life is to be worth living. One reads in certain parts ol the papers that a patent food or drin a •an repair all the havoc wrought by he confounding compoundness uf things. That may be so. but the Usual cure is in quietness, a» Milton wru<*; ‘‘Wisdom’s self ’ft seeks to sweet retired solitude, Where with her best nurse. Contempla«ion, bae plumes her feathers and lets glow her wings, 'I hat, in the various bustle of resort Wexe all to-ruffled. «ud sometimes impaired.” A Move in America. ' Sonic leaning nature-lovers of tie including Air. Robert S. Yard (secretary of the National Parks Association) are organising ihe Wilderness Society to resist needless commercial or motor-roading invasions of certain wilderness areas and to stimulate public appreciation of the “emotional. intellectual and scientific values'’ of rhe primitive In its p!at-.

form the society presents the wilderness as a “natural mental resource having the same basis relation to man’s ultimate thought and cutlure as coal, timber, and other physical resources have tu his material needs.” It is urged that the use of this resource should be considered a public utility and therefore its commercialisation should not be tolcratcu. An Enlightened Civil Servant. Happily the promoters of that American biiuerness Society will nave tne strung support of a very important oivil servant, .ar. Harold L. icses, luderai Secretary uf the interior. Here is oume ui th-c wisdom whicii he spoke at the opening of a cunventicn of Civilian Conservation Corps workers in State Parks;— ”1 am tremcndusly interested iu parks, particularly in those sections ul them biiich are wilderness. 1 think we ought to keep as much wilderness area in this country of ours as we can. " I am nut in favour of building any more roads in the Natibual Parks than we have tu build. lam not in favour or doing anything along the line of su- I called improvements tnat we do not have to do. This is an automobile age, but 1 du nut have a great deal of pati «nce with people whose idea of enjoying nature is dashing along a hai l r0a.,1 at fifty or sixty miles an hour. 1 am not willing that our beautiful areas should be bpened up to people who are either too old tu walk, as 1 am Op too *azy to walk, a s a great many young people are who ougnt to be asuameu of themselves. 1 do nd happen to favour the scarring uf a wonderful mountain side just so that we cau say w© have a skyline drive. It. sounds poetical, but it may be an atrocity. ' A Lesson lor New Zealand. There are some woodlands in New Zealand where the making of tourist toads may be justifiable, but there are certainly some areas uf beautiful wildernesses where such action would be tire worst kind of .stupid vandalism. Several proposals of tnat sort have been pul up during the past year, and the spoilers will have their wav unless the people in the districts concerned make a owerful demonstration against tho sacrilege, tiome of the new roads into forest regions have been used by mote ruts not for the enjoyment ol Nature’s charms but lor the poaching of native pigeons. New Zealand’s people must insist on tbe strict preservation of scenic “zones of quiet,” where the body and •Blind can gain new strength ami jn spiration for life's tasks.