WAIPOUA KAURI FOREST

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 60, 8 September 1926, Page 9

WAIPOUA KAURI FOREST

ASSERTIONS OF DETERIORATION

REFUTED BY SCIENTIST.

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.") AUCKLAND, This Day

The question of tho future of the great Waipoua kauri forest reserve is causing some discussion in view of tho proposal of the Government to put a road through it. One assertion that has been made is that the deterioration of the trees has set in and that therefore the forest cannot be much longer preserved. This view is cornbatted strongly by Mr. W. E. M'Gregor, of Auckland University College, who for the past six years has been conducting scientific research into the growth and possibilities of the kauri pine, and in course of his investigations has spent many months within Waipoua forest. The months have been devoted entirely to the examination of the kauri. He writes in the "Star":— ■

"The statement repeatedly made by the various timberinen in the Dargaville district to the effect that the Waipoua forest is in a state of decadence is absolutely without foundation in fact. Similarly, Mr. Coates's estimate that already there must have been 25 per cent, depreciation in. the forest may be taken merely to represent his opinion, which, in the absence of systematic data, is of no practical utility. My acquaintance with the Waipoua forest goes back no further than 1920, but during the last five years I have had excellent opportunities for becoming intimately acquainted with the area. I have had occasion to visit the forest repeatedly at varying seasons of the year and in the aggregate have spent many months actually within its confines. I do not think there are many who can claim the same intimate acquaintance with this forest, irrespective of how long they may have resided in the district.

"As a result of the careful observations that I have thus been enabled to make in every part of this extensive forest, I state deliberately and advisedly that, far from being in a state of decay, the Waipoua forest is in a surprisingly healthy and virile condition. This is especially so when the abuse to which the more accessible portions have been subjected before the establishment of the State Forest Service is taken into consideration. Over a limited extent of the extreme southern reaches of the forest, especially in the lower Poaunui Valley, a certain number of decayed trees certainly do occur. These unfortunately are conspicuous from afar, and serve to convey the decidedly false impression to various people who in the matter of an hour or so accomplish an inspection of the forest from a distant ridge to the south. As regards the great body of the kauri forest, howevor, dead trees are extremely rare. The forest at the moment is still there, and the fact of its decadenco or otherwise is capable of ready demonstration to impartial minds."