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Forest and Bird, Issue 28, 1 October 1932, Page 1

realisation of the practical value of forests and birds is no arising in the public mind in New Zealand. Will a full realisation take place in time to obviate the inevitable results of the past non-realisation? Already, almost universally, our steeper hill sides show much exposed sub-soil, and in many places rock, the result of the loss of the vital top soil. The over-utilisation of our sleeper country and the loss of the forests thereon is telling the story in deteriorated highlands and floods and destructive loss in the lowlands. At the same time plant eating animals and fire are taking a heavy 101 l of our remaining mountain forests, while so far as birds are concerned such happenings frequently occur as the indiscriminate and illegal poisoning of all birds whether harmful or beneficial, protected by law or unprotected, and the organised and illegal collecting of all birds' eggs in defiance of the law and to the detriment of the national wellbeing. Shall we apathetically look forward to exist in poverty in an eroded and insect infested land, or realise the fact in time that a wise care of forests and birds is essential to national prosperity?