“SHAMEFULLY USED"

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 199, 24 August 1943, Page 4

“SHAMEFULLY USED"

NEW ZEALAND FORESTS “This country has been shamefully used in the past century.” said Mr. L. J. Wild, Feilding, in the course of a talk to the Wanganui Rotary Club yesterday, when referring to tne ruthless destruction of forests and lands in New Zealand. He was not saying this in a recriminating sense, he added. The pioneers in the first place did not knew any better, and they had to do what they did to clear open spaces in a new land. But those who followed, right dbwn to recent years, denudeu the forest growth, and to-day the country was paying the penalty by the heavy yearly toll of erosion and Hood damage. Il was nothing short ol sacrilege to see the way the giant, forests of the land had Deen laid low by the ruthless axe. Unfortunately there was no great evidence oi a vigorous afforestation policy in view with the object of making some muchneeded repairs to the damaged land.

Mr. Wild instanced what was being accomplished in some American State.-, regarding afforestation, which was aeing planned on a sound basis. He also mentioned what he saw in Sweden before the war, where plantings exceeded removals each year.