THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1908. MT. HOLDSWORTH'S ENVIRONS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9056, 15 February 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1908. MT. HOLDSWORTH'S ENVIRONS.

Recently, it will be remembered, an application was made by a sawmilling company for permission to cut timber in the forest reserves on the western slopes of the lower Tararua ranges, in the vicinity of the Maungatarera creek, and the Land Board decided, after strong representations against permission being granted by the Press and the Mt. Holdsworth Track Committee, not to grant the application. Since then it has been represented to the authorities that the bush so much desired for milling has been swept by fire, that it will therefore die and be useless as a commercial or scenic asset, and consequently could well be handed over to the sawmiller. Mr W. M. Easthope, secretary of the Mt. Holdsworth Track Committee, acting on instructions, sent a strong letter of protest against these assertions to the Commissioner of Crown Lands, Mr John Strauchon, setting out that the beautiful and valuable reserve is in nowise harmed by fire, so that passing it over to a sawmilling company would be a most unjustifiable proceeding. Mr Easthope pointed out in his letter the great popularity of Mt. Holdsworth and its unexcelled environments, and strongly urged upon the Commissioner the advisability of keeping the whole of the bush inviolable, as even were a small fringe scorched by fire the handing of ever so small a belt of timber country would be but the thin end of the wedge for the whole milling area being bartered away.

It is known that the Commissioner has always been strongly opposed to any interference with the bush reserves where they constituted a scenic asset, and he has shown particular sympathy with the efforts to preserve Mt. Holds worth and the Tararua ranges generally as far as possible as a national park. He has replied as follows to Mr Easthope:— "Your letter of the 4th ultimo, re timber cutting on Mt. Holdsworth, will be laid before the Land Board at its next meeting on the 27th inst. It is to be earnestly hoped that the Board will not for a moment entertain a proposition which is inimiclal to the interests of the district, while temporarily benefiting only a very small section of a community."