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Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 March 1940, Page 9

A request that the Government discontinue the milling of mature trees from the kauri forests of the north was made by a deputation from local bodies which waited on the Commissioner of State Forests, the Hon F. Langstone, at Whangarei. It was considered by speakers that this policy would gradually destroy the forests, while the logging would create a potential fire danger. “We have definitely planned the extraction of the dead and mature trees,” said Mr Langstone in reply. “If this work causes the damage which you think may take place, then it will have to stop.” Mr Langstone added that his department was doing everything possible to minimise the fire risk, but if the carelessness shown by a number of persons continued, with the resultant fire loss, then the Government might have to declare the whole of New Zealand a fire district and so prevent the lighting of fires that might endanger the forests.