SAVE THE BUSH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 March 1939, Page 7

SAVE THE BUSH

DROUGHTS OF MAN’S MAKING. NEED FOR REAFFORESTATION. “It was very disturbing to me to come over the hill this afternoon and see the 'number of fires,” said Mrs Knox Gilmer, when opening l the Masterton Flower Show yesterday afternoon. “Some of the fires,” she added, “are probably accessary for burning off, but I think if I were in the shoes of a number of men in this country 1 would takes the law in my own hands. I would follow a ear that I saw this afternoon from which cigarette butts were being thrown out and I would take the law in my own hands and give those responsible a good hiding.” Referring to erosion, Mrs Gilmer said she wished to pay a tribute to the Ministers of the Crown on the way in which they were fighting for New Zealand in an effort to check erosion. They could do nothing, however, without the public's support and the assistance of the people of this country. The drought being experienced in the Wairarapa, she said, was largely of their own making, brought about by taking the bush off the hills. To meet the position it was necessary to replant the hills and to preserve what was left of the bush. They had something in New Zealand that few other parts of the world possessed, a unique forest, which should be protected. Mrs Gilmer said she had recently read an article in a magazine about the erosion of the Empire, in which it was emphasised that the greatest problem facing the Empire was a geological one, for without arable land and a good watersupply the British Empire would soon cease to exist. “That warning comes from the centre of the Empire to you,” said Mrs Gilmer, “and I ask for your co-operation.”