The New Zealanders’ Heritage

Forest and Bird, Issue 13, 1 September 1927, Page 1

The New Zealanders’ Heritage

Our Birds and Forests

OV rO race can long exist without forests. In New J v Zealand our forests are being destroyed at a far greater rate than they are being replaced by exotics Our indigenous forests are vital as a regulation to climatic conditions. Lack of a sufficiency of forests produces a harsh, hard, barren atmosphere with extremes of rain, drought, and wind conditions unsuitable to the economic use of our soil. Much of our land is extremely steep, and the soil being of a friable nature is very subject to erosion. Our birds are necessary to the existence of our forests and to the existence of our pastoral and agricultural industries in no uncertain manner. We are destroying our heritages bequeathed us by Nature. It took our forests thousands and thousands of years to produce the soil on our hills. Are we living on our capital and. calling it profit, and will there be a day of reckoning when Budgets refuse to balance and our eroded and insect-inf lands refuse to yield a .sufficiency? Surely it is the duty of every New Zealand citizen to help to safeguard our heritages.