Annual General Meeting

Forest and Bird, Issue 106, 1 November 1952, Page 12

Annual General Meeting

'J’HIS was held in Wellington on 24th June. A brief report of outstanding business is given below. The President, Mr. A. P. Harper, paid a tribute to the late Sir Joseph Heenan, all standing for a while as a mark of respect. Referring to Arbor Day, the President praised the work of the Beautifying Societies and urged them to give preference to native trees. He told the meeting of arrangements being made to call a meeting in the near future to discuss the formation of a National Trust for places of historic interest and natural beauty. There was a very lively discussion' on the question of the artificial spread of manuka “blight”, Dr. Falla answering questions asked by members on various points connected with it. The Secretary reported on a protest which had been made to the authorities against the deliberate spread of the disease. Thanks were given to the Honorary Auditor, Mr. W. S. Wheeler, for his considerable voluntary work in auditing the accounts, to the Press for the publicity given to nature protection matters, and the President specially mentioned the ready co-opera-

tion and assistance received from Government Departments. The election ,of officers resulted as shown on page 1 of this issue.

After the meeting Mr. Bernard Teague, of Wairoa, gave a most interesting talk on the Urewera Country entitled “The Forest Land of the Tuhoe Tribes”, illustrated with pictures which he had taken during numerous journeys through the country. This was followed by a general discussion, and the President asked the Hon. Mr. Corbett, Minister of Lands and Forests, who was present, if he could inform the meeting of the Government’s plans for the Urewera. The Minister announced that the Government had been negotiating to acquire private land, so that, with State-owned land, 500,000 acres of the Urewera could be reserved as a National Park. He stated that consideration of this would be one of the . tasks of the authority to be set up under National Parks legislation in the forthcoming session of Parliament. Sawmilling permits had been refused and alternative areas for sawmilling were being sought.