RONCOKAUPO HILL RESERVE

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 72, 26 March 1934, Page 8

RONCOKAUPO HILL RESERVE

(To the Editor.) Sir, —The attention of the Horopito Progressive Association has been drawn to an article published in your paper on Saturday, 17th inst., contributed by the" New Zealand Forestry League, on the . advisability or otherwise of throwing open for milling purposes the scenic reserve on the Ohakune-Horopito railway known as the Rongokaupo Hill Reserve. Ac this association has been very much interested in this matter of having the reservation lifted, I am asked to put our case before you in reply to this article. - . In the first place, regarded from a scenic point of view,- there can hardly be any doubt that this particular piece of bush has no value, for the reason that only a very small portion of the reserve is visible from either the railway or the highway, so that the removal oE the bush by milling could hardly be considered a loss from a scenic point of view. In any case, those who are most interested in

the scenery, namely tourists, travel over I •this particular portion of the line at niaht | time. ■ From the point of view of fire, a goodh I portion of thi6 reserve .has already been destroyed by fire, which played havoc with the back portion, and in any lj^c, when .one considers the rapidity with which the cut-over forest is being burned ■ in the vicinity of the reserve, it is only to be expected that the remaining portion is bound, in the natural course of events, , to be also destroyed in the same manner, thus becoming a total loss, instead of a potential asset, as it is at present. There are many reserves in this district which have been burnt out and which are now being milled for what'; timber is available. Regarding the matter from a materialist viewpoint, this relatively small area of, forest has no value except for the timber it contains, which in trie present state of things, represents about three years' work for this district, which, of course, means development and piogress, as against unemployment and stagnation. Until such time? as the land in the district already milled is cleared and reudered suitable for settlement, some avenue of employment must be found for the workers mi the district, and the work obtained in the milling of this reserve will materially aid in tiding over the present lamentable lack of work for bushmen and others here. ' This association is quite in. favour of reserving-' and preserving our national forests, and is in sympathy with the Forestry League in "its endeavours in these directions, but, as already pointed out, this particular portion of reserve is not sufficiently valuable to be .held indefinitely for purely scenic purposes.—l' am, etc., .-.'■■.■'.•■■■ F. H. P. ROGERS, ' . " v Hon. Secretary. Horopito Progressive Association.