Neglected Duty of the State.

Forest and Bird, Issue 34, 1 October 1934, Page 1

Neglected Duty of the State.

)EAR after year the New Zealand Native Bird (and Forest) y Protection Society and other organisations, which set national Welfare above selfish sectional interests, have to urge successive Governments and Departments of State to carry on courageously and efficiently with various duties on behalf of the present generation and posterity. In comparatively minor matters, where a temporary advantage may be gained by certain insistent elements of the community, a Government may be quickly moved into action, but in the far-reaching field of statesmanship, where the prosperity of the whole country may be at stake, disastrous neglect and delay can be seen, all too frequently. What a time it has taken to convince the authorities that the huge increase of destructive deer in the native forests must bring ruin eventually to thousands of farms unless an effective campaign is undertaken against the pests! Again, in the case of erosion in high country, the authorities are not yet properly alert, despite the long-sustained educative campaigns carried on by the Bird (and Forest) Protection Society and other public-spirited bodies. Consider, too, the Scenic Reservations and Bird Sanctuaries. Surely it should be a clean-cut function of the State to keep these places inviolate, but complaints of neglect and attempts at individual exploitation are frequent. It is well to give a reminder that the vast majority of New Zealanders would favour a strict policy of conservation of native forests and birds. Naturally they prefer national welfare to selfish sectionalism.