LOVE FOR TREES

Evening Post, Issue 51, 2 March 1931, Page 10

LOVE FOR TREES

CULTURAL: ECONOMIC

RESTORING VIRGIN LIFE

AT WILTON'S BUSH

1 (By the N.Z. Forestry League.) I Wellington has been blessed beyond | the limits of most capital cities, in that Wellington has been endowed with about seventy thousand acres of river basin lands running from 5000 feet down to sea level, and including many thousands of acres of primeval forest. This huge endowment, mostly a gift (from tho Government) of Stato Forests, is controlled by a. Wafer Board representative of tho local bodies. Realisation of water supply is deferred, but as a wild life asset (flora and fauna) this 70,000 acres of mountain, valley, stream, and forest represents _ great riches, present and potential. It is only twenty- miles from, the city, and it almost touches the suburban limits.of the railway. Transport service is by two railways (one running through it) and various highways and roads. FIRST CBOP IS BEST CROP. Still closer to the Capital City—in fact a part thereof—is Wilton's Bush, which is vested-in the Wellington City Council. To a visitor, accustomed to eco the environs of a city swept cleau of all traces of the original vegetation, it comes as a pleasant shock to note the conservation of so many thousand acres of native forest at the 20 miles-30 miles radius (Water Board's area), and perhaps as an even greater shock, to find within the city itself,, and within half-an-hour of the post office, a treasuro such as* Wilton's Bush, now becoming better known as the Otari Native Plant Museum. There are acres of this bush that are very little altered —"a brand plucked'from the burning." Without giving.any adequate grass result, farmers and other fire-raisers have destroyed- hillside after hillside of indigenous vegetation. But parts of Wilton's Bush, lying in the sheltered valley of one of the two main branches of the Kaiwharawhara Stream—about midway between the two city reservoirs on the head of.that stream and its mouth at "Kaiwarra," where it enters Wellington harbour —have survived axe and flame, thanks partly to accident and partly to the Nature-love and national spirit of tho late Mr. Martin Chapman. The salvage of Wilton's Bush is in its way as wSndcrful as the conservation of the Water Board's Hutt basin lands. From the point of view of indigenous vegetation and fauna, Wellington has in Wilton's Bush, the Botanic Gardens (still nearer tho city), Williams Park (across tho- harbour at Day's Bay), and in the basins'of the Hutt, the Orongorongo, and the Wai-nui-o-Mata, a series of units each one of which will be valued by posterity in a way that the present populace (on whom falls some monetary sacrifice) hardly realises. But the effort is more than worth while. May public opinion tally with loyalty round that idea. THANKS TO STEEP,'POOR SOIL. Disadvantages are sometimes blessings in disguise. Often in tho last ninety years people have complained of the steepness of the country round Wellington harbour, of its ring of mountains (barrier to transport), of the poorness and instability of tho soil on tho precipitous, burned-over hills. Flat, rich land,,it was complained, was scarce (and scarcer still to-day through failure to protecfit from the deforested Hutt River). But, glancing at the surroundings of cities' that have 'grown up in level, rich, arable plains, it is evident that the availability of such, level land sealed the doom of its indigenous vegetation. Conversely, the Wellington countryside owes the partial salvage of'the indigenous primarily to tho fact that the land was poor and .steep. The obvious folly of reckless burning on the Hutt Valley hills has helped to preserve' from "settlement" a remnant of-the higher spurs, which passed through the legal stages of Crown- land and State Forest to Water Board ownership. And the poor-soiled mountain rampart that performed this miracle of conservation has not really blocked transport, because, owing to "the harbourlessness of the rest of tho coast, all roads in this southern part of the North lead t\ Wellington harbour. While commerce, has thriven in the last ninety years, not very much attention has been given to these survivals of the indigenous within short radius of the Capital City; but the time has come when civic life must take more stock —and is taking more stock —of its wild life assets, near and far. • WHAT BOTANISTS ARE DOING. The Botanic Gardens, a place of beauty for both nativo and exotic, are nearest to the city's centre, but tho botanists' paradise is' Wilton's Bush. Dr. Cockayne, C.M.G., F.R.S., lias put Wilton's Bush on the map. He has pointed out to> the public that "in nature, plants do not grow haphazard, but they J'orni well-defined communities, each more or less disti/ict from any other." Such communities may be subdivided into different smaller communities. Conservation of tlip indigenous implies the preservation pure of these communities and plant associations. But such a thing would be impossible in Britain, and indeed, in Europe generally. In those countries, "to reproduce the virgin vegetation is impossible (in the majority of cases, since there are no longer living examples of such communities. But in our land, though the face of Nature is day by day being changed out of all recognition, fortunately most of the plant-communities can still be seen in their virgin state, but usually far from the beaten track." Thus, adds Dr. Cockayne, primitive New Zealand "may in time be brought back again and have its home in an actual city." That is, in Wilton's Bush. Botanically and culturally, this aim, and tho other equally important airris^ that the botanists strive at in the Otari Native Plant Museum, Wilton's Bush, is in the highest grade of public service. The city is culturally benefited that can point to such a forest and such botanists. AUXILIARY FUNPS NEEDED. Much of the service that has been done and is being done is given without payment, but the paid labour involved -in development and research will be considerable, and one of the questions to be faced is the establishment of a public fund that will supplement Wellington City Council funds. At present tho City Council is spending a certain amount of money anually on Wilton's Bush as one of its reserves. Something more is needed if the planned special development—far moro comprehensive than outlined above — is to be carried on, and if the Grcsley Lnkin Alpino Garden and -other new botanic features are to yield their full rc'sults.. At a time when public funds are limited by trade circumstances there could be no better subject for private bequests. The establishment of a trust fund, auxiliary to tho City Council's expenditure, would enable botanic research to bo put upon a stronger economic basis. In the meantime, it may be accomplishing something to direct public attention to what is being done in tho. interests of indigenous vegetation at Wilton's Bush, in the way of conservation and restoration. Ultimately, tho development of new forest products will repay handsomely. But, commerce apart, is there not a moral value In offering one more object lesson lit the virtue of love for trees*