Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, SEPT. 12, 1940. BUSH PRESERVATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 244, 12 September 1940, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, SEPT. 12, 1940. BUSH PRESERVATION.

An admirable function continues to be served by the numerous forest and bush preservation societies throughout the . Dominion which realise that, despite the war, attention can still be given to what is, after all, an essential development of the Dominion’s natural progress. It is noted lately that an area of bush in the Alcatarawa hills, one of the most beautiful spots near the Capital City, to which many residents from there and elsewhere frequently repair to enjoy virgin forest beauty, is in danger of being felled, and the Wellington-Beau-tifying Society and other interests are to make representations for its preservation to the Minister concerned. If it is at all possible this and other similar areas which may come under the bushman’s axe should be saved, for there is abundant evidence throughout the Dominion that this subject has attained serious proportions, and and not from the aesthetic viewpoint alone. In the past the Dominion has suffered tremendously, and continues to suffer, from the lack of a well-defined policy of forest replacement such as is insisted upon in other countries where denudation of forest and bush lands is threatened. The result is that untold damage by erosion and other natural reactions to lack of planning have taken place.

The costly story is well-known to everyone who has taken even the slightest interest in the subject. Thousands of acres of hill slopes and other lands have been washed away into the sea or piled up in the lower reaches of rivers to cause drastic flooding in the lower reaches simply because the natural means of conserving moisture have been taken away. The rain waters precipitated in what would otherwise be regarded as ordinary falls have rushed down the bare slopes to cause havoc just because trees that held the moisture in proper distribution have been removed and the roots which once bound the soil are no longer performing that beneficial function. It may be said that the present is not an opportune time to legislate for the introduction of extensive forest replacement, but advocates of this contend with justification that the least that can be done is to save, or replace where necessary, what the Dominion has left of its bush and forests where there is no interference with the prosecution of the war. Throughout the whole of the Wellington Province lamentably small areas of bush remain; here and there landowners imbued with a high sense of beauty have meticulously cared for small pieces, but they are all too few. The case of the Akatarawas presents another angle which one observer points out is of vital interest to the growing industrial and residential area about Wellington its future

needs in water supply.. Those in Palmerston North who appreciate the value of the Tiritea watershed as the principal source of this city’s water service will readily understand the serious consequences that would arise were it to be denuded of its growth. The same consequences, it is contended, might develop for the Wellington and Hutt Valley of the future were the Alcatarawa hills to lose their bush covering.