NO NATIVE FORESTS MEANS NO NATIVE BIRDS

Forest and Bird, Issue 8, 1 March 1925, Page 8

NO NATIVE FORESTS MEANS NO NATIVE BIRDS

By Capt. E. V. Sanderson.

THE TRAGEDY OF THE KAURI.

Before the great kauri log goes hurtling down the shute to the dam on its way to the receiving booms in Hokianga Harbour, measurements are taken and it is branded with a number and with the owner’s mark for the purpose of identification. The next course is to make the logs into rafts at the receiving booms and tow them to the mill to be there converted into sawn timber. But things in the kauri log line do not always run as ordered; sometimes booms break, logs get away. Last winter thebooms broke and released a great number of logs, valued .from £ls to £3O each, into the harbour,. many miles from the sea. and hundreds of logs could be seen floating about, Only two launches

were utilised in rescuing these logs, although the assistance of a large number of additional launches could have been procured on the spot. Formerly it was the custom to pay 2/6 each! for the rescue of wandering logs, but the owners withdrew this, in recent years, and wandering logs take their chance now. Many of the logs which were floating round, found a resting place in the mud, amidst the mangroves, some to be rescued later, some to lie and rot, as many others have done in past years. The balance went out to sea, some 80 logs crossing the bar in one day (28th May), to join the host, not of hundreds but of thousands of logs which lie littering our northern coasts for miles and miles never to be redeemed, as it is far . easier and cheaper to cut more. Some of these logs either from here or from other parts of the northern coasts have been known to go for long sea journeys, menacing shipping on the way, and one was traced to Fabre Island in the Huon group. Here in the south we complacently discuss the merits of pinus insignis and other exotic timbers of debatable value, while the monarch of our forests,. supplying timber of almost unequalled excellence goes drifting out to sea —surely we are a peculiar people, and our methods pass understanding. Needless to say, although the people of this Hokianga district have destroyed by fire and axe enough forest to pay off our national debt, nobody appears to be the better off. The ■ residents are mostly poor, and in some instances the natives are worse off than the pakeha. Much of this great national wealth has been wasted, dissipated and lost to the sea, presumably because these wonderful forests have been and are being cut before their time, before the transport means, etc., are available to deal economically with the( standing wealth. Many magnificent logs lie rotting in Hokianga Harbour and elsewhere. Why not make it compulsory for every owner to date logs and allow the ownership only to stand good for a given period. • They would at least then be utilised. At present many .will never be, and someone might even see his way to start mills on the coast to make use of some not already too far decayed, or destroyed by the toreador. These mighty timber logs are but the cream of the forest. Much could be said about the lesser quality timber left standing or rotting in the forest to be consumed by the invariably following fire. In State forests some quite reasonable attempts are, however, now being made in an endeavour to prevent this fire which has in the past consumed all young 50 and 100 year old trees, leaving a waste in its wake. Nature is trying hard ;o regenerate our kauri forests in many . northern districts; but fire and lack of conservation and common sense prevent her being successful.