AN AMENDMENT NEEDED

Forest and Bird, Issue 148, 1 May 1963, Page 2

AN AMENDMENT NEEDED

In this issue there appears an article kindly supplied by the officers of the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council. It is true as stated in the article that our work and the work of the council have a good deal in common. We believe that conservation of the indigenous bush on our steep protection slopes, or replacing it where it has been destroyed, is of the greatest importance in regulating the flow of water and reducing the flood menace.

Soil and water conservation is tremendously important for every citizen of New Zealand because so much of our overseas income has its origin in the soil. Without it we should be in a sorry state indeedthe high standard of living we enjoy would be quite impossible.

The Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council is doing splendid work within the framework of the Act, but unfortunately there is a curiously shortsighted omission in the Act in that it does not require the council in its operations to give consideration to the needs of wildlife. The council cannot withhold assistance from the draining of freehold or leasehold land, or unalienated Crown lands, no matter what the effect on wildlife of the proposed works, as long as there will be an adequate economic return. Undoubtedly there is within the organisation a good deal of sympathy for wet-land wildlife. The council has requested the catchment boards to do what they can to modify schemes slightly in order to retain valuable waterfowl habitat, but this should be mandatory under the Act. Our vision should not be limited by economic considerations alone; there are others. Wet-land bird life is one of our natural resources, and when the glitter has worn dull on the economic picture it may well be that too late we shall see we destroyed a much more valuable asset when we permitted the wholesale destruction of wet-land-bird habitat.

During the past century tremendous increases in world populations have been the cause of shocking destruction of wildlife, but wise individuals and powerful organisations are now endeavouring to obtain for all creatures indigenous to any land space the right to live. An amendment to the Act to make it mandatory for the Soil Conservation organisation to give consideration to wet-land wildlife would supply the balance it now lacks; it would enable a good job to be done with consideration for all values involved and remove the reproach that when the Bill was drafted it failed to give heed to the concept now established that wildlife has a place, and a not unimportant place, in the general order of life.