A Visitor's Impression.

Forest and Bird, Issue 49, 1 August 1938, Page 11

A Visitor's Impression.

Mr. Sidney Porter, an English ornithologist, who recently visited this country, writes to the Forest and Bird Protection Society as follows:

I am now here again for a short time and there is a matter I would like to mention. When I was here last I stayed for a time in the King Country, and was taken out by a friend to see the forests which were being worked by the timber company. This company has the lease or owns tens of thousands of acres of the most magnificent forest country in New Zealand, which they are milling. This would not be so bad if it were only milled, but as soon as the very large timber is cut out the whole area is fired, often in parts far too steep for any farming, and which in a few years will erode. When I questioned them on the matter of firing the forest, I was told it was customary! I have recently seen the person who took me down to the forests, and he says that this terrible desecration is still going on, and vast areas are still being burnt. Can’t something be done to stop this awful destruction of the forests by burning? Cutting the large timber out doesn’t do a great deal of damage, because it can grow up again, but I should have thought there was enough desolation here already without creating more.