The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1930. SCENERY PRESERVATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 October 1930, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1930. SCENERY PRESERVATION.

Scenhry preservation must necessarily remain a State activity. There is a State Department in operation, and the annual report lately presented to Parliament, has some points of general interest, Dealing with activities lor the past year, it is pointed out that juat on 7090 acres , wei;e added to the spenip reservations of ,the Dominion, the largest areas in, question being 935. acres on the Gpeiat. Barrier Island anc{ ,3570, acres in the..Gisborne district. Qf, interest tp , ; otago says the Dunedin i'rmes, is the ,reservation l or scenic .purples of- 327 acres in the Gatlins district, described. comprising dense bush, while ’“on the face of a hill in this;..reserve a colony of penguins build, .their nests and rear their young,, this being one of the few places where the birds breed along that part of the Otago coast.” A lav such a colony long flourish! It is recorded that, the number of scenic reservations in the Dominion is now 851, which cover a total area of about 511,792 acres. The expenditure in connection with scenery preservation during the past year amounted to £239l—a modest sum—while since the Scenery. Preset vatipn Act came into operation twenty-six years ago the total expenditure has been £212,000 by ~way of compensation, fencing and maintenance, surveyb, valuation, Board expenses and salaries. As the last two items are set down as being for the past year £6 and £3OO respectively, it is fairly claimed that the cost of administration has 'been reduced to a very small proportion of the total expenditure, A feature oi the report to which the Under-secre-tary for Lands draws attention is its inclusion of a valuable and interesting paper on the glacial scenic reserves in West-land contributed by Dr Cockayne in collaboration with Dr Teiohelmann, The country dealt with includes the Franz Josef scenic reserve of 48,500 acres, an adjoining' reserve of 14,210 acres, an area of 61,000 acres surrounding and including the Fox Glacier, and an area ol 64,000 acres further south. The two last-mentioned areas are at present Crown land, hut arrangements are in hand to have them permanently setaside, and it is observed that when this has been done the Dominion will possess in this chain of reserves a national asset of unsurpassed beauty and grandeur. The account given by the authorities mentioned deals in detail with the intensely interesting vegetation of a region which, from that scenic aspect, they characterise re “unique,” and concerning which they go on to say:—“Even in New Zealand itself—a land of scenic surprises—there i.s nothing which matches in character the scenery of the area pierced by the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers—long rivers of ice issuing from vast isnowfiolds and passing finally through an ever green forest where the dominant tree is of tropical origin, where tree-ferns grow at no great distance from the ice, and whore an early colonist on rock recently leftbare by the reteating ice is an epiphytic orchid!” These writers do

not linger, however on scenic description. Their reference to bird 1 iJo in the reservation in question is of general interest, and their comment, after comparing an estimate of the relative abundance thirty years ago of most of the land bucks with an estimate applying to the present time is that, though recently it has been frequently asserted that native birds a.re on the increase in New Zealand generally, this is far from being the case in the Westland area which has been: the subject of their observations. The comparison ibet-wixt past and present, covering a list of over forty birds, is indeed much more instructive than gratifying; in too many instances the legend runs simply “never seen now.” It is one thing to proclaim an area to be a scenic reserve, but the Department concerned finds it anotlie to preserve the scenic aspect againrs! undesirable decorative intrusions. Thus this report tells how the practice of advertising matter being nailed to trees on reserves has been brought under its notice and its Co-opera-tion with other Government departments asked for with a view to the institution of effective steps “to deal with this evil.” It is explained that the Lands Department has never given authority for the display of advertising matter on Crown lands or reserves under its control—the excrescences complained of are in practically all cases displayed, it ip observed, on private property or on public roads, outside its jurisdiction. But that does not quite cover the general position. It may well be suggested, in rcgnrd to this matter of blots on the landscape, that there is room for a better understanding among Government departments. There is something incongruous in the spectacle of one department conniving at their creation and taking steps to vindioate Its rights In that connection, while another department within its sphere displays vigilance in the direction of the suppression of commercial aids to Nature’s charms.