Need of National Action.

Forest and Bird, Issue 35, 1 February 1935, Page 1

Need of National Action.

ZF the conservation of forests and wild life in New Zealand is to be done satisfactorily from the national viewpoint, a big change must be effected in the present scheme, which shows a distressing lack of plan, without co-ordination of effort. No real progress can be made on this ground until the duty of safeguarding the national assets concerned is put upon a properlyconstituted Board of Control, fully representative of folk interested in scenery preservation, farming, forestry and bird-life. Such an organisation would administer certain Acts and Regulations which now come within the functions of several Departments—lnternal Affairs, Forest Service, Lands and Survey, Agriculture, Tourist, and Marine. In addition, there are such bodies as the Tongariro National Park Board and the Egmont National Park Board, etc., which have worked with varying success in their own spheres. Unhappily, the making and working of a truly national policy for forestry and wild life is regarded by many Parliamentarians as beyond the bounds of “practical politics It does not come into the hurlyburly of election campaigns, although it is immeasurably more important than many so-called “popular proposals.” However, politicians can be emphatically assured that an overwhelming majority of electors will support the principle outlined in this article. At present a very disproportionate amount of money is available for the breeding and distribution of “ something to kdlbut there is not nearly enough for the constructive work of real conservation on behalf of New Zealand as a whole.