DENUDED FORESTS

Evening Star, Issue 19783, 6 February 1928, Page 11

DENUDED FORESTS

PIONEERS WERE 11 EGREGIOUS BLUNDERERS’'

[Special to the ‘Star.’]

CHRISTCHURCH, _ February 4. “Wo often speak with admiration of the work done by New Zealand pioneers, but, so far as the timber of the dominion is concerned, they were mainly egregious blunderers,” declared the Mayor, the Rev. J. K. Archer, in referring to tho denuding of the forests of New Zealand. The mayor’s remarks were prompted by a reference to the visit to Christchurch during his absence of Dr A, W. Hill, director of Kew Gardens, London.

“I was disappointed at not being able to meet Dr Hill. I noticed that he said, among other things, that in New Zealand wc had destroyed forests growing on land which was only fit for forestry. During my holiday in the Gatlins district in Otago I was very much impressed with the accuracy of that statement. There are considerable areas of land in that district which have been denuded of most valuable timber, and are now going hack to absolute waste spaces. Californian thistles, wild foxglove, _ blackberry, and other weeds are immense spaces, and becoming a nuisance to surrounding areas.” The mayor then made tho remark quoted above, adding that, unfortunately, the vandalism begun by the pioneers was still carried on to some extent. “It is time the State interfered in tho interests of tho_ people as a whole, instead of allowing individuals to act entirely on their own impulses,” he remarked.