NATURE—AND MAN

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20464, 2 April 1938, Page 25 (Supplement)

NATURE—AND MAN

“WASTE NOT—WANT NOT" LOSS OF VITAL CAPITAL By Leo Lanning In a very stimulating speech at the opening of the Wellington Horticultural Society’s midsummer show. Mrs Knox Gilmer, In a plea for soil-savins frees. reminded New Zealanders that they had a problem similar to that of South Africa. She. quoted a remark of General Smuts that "soil-erosion had overshadowed in urgency all complex political problems farmer that country at Ihe present, time." Naturally. ,\ similar saying in the United States of America would he true. Fools who sowed thp winds of waste long ago are now reaping the whirlwinds of devastation. Again and again observant, thoughtful men and women In New Zealand have reminded the public that the most important, need to-day Is a strong, well-planned policy for saving the real capilal of (he country—the soil which yields Ihe materials of food, clothing and housing. For many years In the helter-skelters and hurly-bur-lies of party politics, pleaders for sane conservation of natural resources have been derided as “cranks" by self-seekers. Destroyers of irreplacable natural capital have posed as benefactors. Conservation has been away In the background of politics, far out of the voting arena. The most important, thing has been the last, to receive attention among the great majority of politicians. It never figures as a plank in I heir rickety platforms. Expert Investigation This country has seen so many "dud" royal commissions that one hesitates to recommend another. Yet it is necessary to have an expert investigation into the losses of natural capital already incurred through blunders of the past century and an estimate of the penalties still to be paid for the destruction of protective forests on ste»p watersheds. Many people, beyond Taranaki must have been astonished by the reluctance of Inral bodies of that prosperous province, lo have a worthy court in the New Zealand Centennial exhibition. 1 When | read reports of their unwillingness I" find the money I Ihought of Mount Kgmonl. Whal an opportunity to impress that marvellous mountain on people of other districts and visitors from overseas! What an oppr% (unit} In indicate (lie .scenic splendour of Fern out and to show how (he welfare of Taranaki depends on the safe I guarding of the native forest girdle, j some places. Try to imagine the people of Japan being as Indifferent to their Fujiyama as many residents of Taranaki are to Egmont, Blast the German Owl! At intervals the wrath of many lovers of native birds is aroused against German owls, which have killed thousands of fantails. warblers, tom-tits and other small birds. Then the matter goes into the background, but the owls continue their slaughter. Mr F. Milner, rector of the Waltaki Boys' High School, who is helping to wage war on the owls, says that these pests are wiping out native birds in the vicinity of Oamaru. Another active battler against the owls is Mr A. H. Fisher, of Dunedin.

He has been leader In a campaign which has brought death to 3350 of these bird-killers in the past three years, “I have always contended," he writes, "that unless some concerted action is taken to rid the country of this frightful pest we shall wake up one day to find all our lovely native birds a mere memory of the past." Stray cats and dogs, rats, stoats and weasels. German owls and inhuman vandals! What a struggle for the native birds to survive! The Itch to Kill "Bird-Lore" ( America) lias some sad facts about the killing lust which lurks in many men. "Many people." writes Margaret Paulson, -'still think of Florida as a ‘great on!doors,’ where game is free for all. Even he who is an avid bird conservationist, at. home feels that on his vacation in South Florida he may forget his laws ami run wild. As a result, birds such as the beautiful wading while ibis, with his curved beak and ebony-tipped wings, and the carmine, pink arid white of the roseate spoonbill are seen to-day only in zoos or in hidden rookeries on the keys. Soon, if we are not careful, the great white heron and his cousin the great blue one, along with the remaining few of the other kinds, will become as extinct as a long-tailed pterodactyl dimorphodon. These birds are not only beautiful but useful. " As none of these birds is particularly palatable, the hunter's last argument is destroyed. These beautiful animals of the air are killed either for their plumage or to satisfy the wanton lust for killing that so many alleged human beings possess. Some" of these might well remember that philosophy of the Ancient Mariner—- ‘ He prayeth best who lovetli best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us. He made and loveth all.’ ’’ Haven May the people in every district of New Zealand save such havens; as a sifted popt. Alesa Stevens, presents in these lines— There’s a little hidden grotto, where It’s cool end very shadv, Put 1 cannot tep you where-- just nowThere are Tern* and =nft green leaves And a forest rmi of trees— Ah, I cannot mi] you where -Just now: There are all the thing-? you've longed for, Though you didn't know I guessed it. And It’s neve,- heard a Footfall on the floor. It Is curtained with my dreams, And within my spirit, gleams. But I keep the door quite locked—just