Monumental Book on Waipoua Forest

Grey River Argus, 20 September 1948, Page 2

Monumental Book on Waipoua Forest

All lovers of the New Zealand bush and particularly of the kauri forest, will welcome Mr AV. R. McGregor’s’ book, "The Waipoua Kauri Forest, the Last Virgin Kauri Forest of New Zealand,” which has now been published, states “Forest and Bird.” It is a monumental work upon one of Nature’s supremest glories, and it is not too much to say that it is so ably written as to be worthy of its subject. In this book, in clear and concise language that is often poetry in prose, Mr McGregor, B.Sc., head of the Department of Zoology at Auckland University College, has performed yet another notable service—in this perhaps his greatest—in his efforts to save Waipoua, that have been spread over upward of 25 years. Apart from the foreword and a summary of the reasons for the preservation of the forest, the book is divived into five main parts—“ The National Park Project,” The Waipoua Forest Reserve,” “The Forest Primeval,” “The Life History of the Forest,” and “Enduring Grandeur ar Ignoble Ruin.” Each is of absorbing interest, but those sections that will undoubtedly appeal to most will be those dealing with the primitive forest and its life history. In these two chapters the author has ventured to give a detailed description of this typically New Zealand forest, a task tnat few would dare to attempt, and has succeeded so well as to give a realistic impression of nature expressing herself in her sublimest mood —in aweinspiring columns that reach up towards the sky, in crowded vegetation great and small, in ever varying scenes of incomparable beauty, all diversely coloured and all blending into' one harmonious whole. It is a delight merely to read it. This, of course, is a telling foreground for what is to follow—the devastation committed by the State Forest Service in order to preserve it. The details of this destruction, which Mr McGregor particularlises, form sad reading to New Zealanders who have hitherto come to regard Waipoua as a most valuable .part of their national heritage, and will assist greatly in strengthening the demand for’ the proclamation of the area, and nothing less than the whole area, as a National Park. z WELL ILLUSTRATED The book, which comprises a total of 80 pages, -is handsomely illustrated, no less than 37 pages being devoted to excellent photographs that were taken on the spot. These are even more eloquent than the prose, and are such fine examples of lithographic art that the book is worth purchasing for these magnificent pictures ■ alone. To anyone viewing these splendours it is incredible that they should be subjected to “forest management” of which such evidence is given. Those who signed the petition to Parliament for the preservation of this last great stand of oui’ magnificent kauri forest should not fail to possess this book. Indeed, it should be in every New Zealand home.’