TO SAVE NEW ZEALAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 August 1939, Page 5

TO SAVE NEW ZEALAND

NATIONAL CONSERVATION WORK TRIBUTE TO THE PRESS. “In these days, when there is so much gloomy news from Europe, it is very pleasant to see that New Zealand papers are giving plenty of space to matters which urgently need attention in the Dominion,’ says Captain Sanderson, President of the Forest and Bird Protection Society, in a review of conservation work. "News articles and editorials show impressively that the journalistic profession, in cities and provincial towns, has a good grasp of the fact that the Government and local bodies must make a sustained effort to check the ravaging forces of erosion. “For many years this vital question of soil-saving did not get much serious attention from the general public, but happily, with the widespread educative help of the press, large numbers of people must now be recognising the truth of the argument that Ihe safeguarding of natural resources must have active attention. “Whatever developments there may be in propagandist methods, I believe the influence of the press in such nonpolitical matters as sane conservation of natural resources, on which national welfare depends, will be always important. The printed word can be studied by readers at their convenience and can be kept. “There can be no doubt that the people of New Zealand owe a debt cf gratitude to the press for its effective advocacy in the saving of necessary native forests and native birds and the replanting of certain denuded areas which are disastrous playgrounds for the demon of erosion.”