OURSELVES.

Forest and Bird, Issue 49, 1 August 1938, Page 14

OURSELVES.

(By E. V. Sanderson.)

many years past the Forest and Bird A Protection Society has been the * prime mover in bringing many vitally important matters before the general public, especially matters which scientific and other bodies have scarcely been willing or able to ventilate because of the feeling that nobody can do a public service without treading on somebody’s toes. When the hard uphill fight is approaching finality and Ministers of the Crown see the force of our argument and begin to take action, many helpers come along and give valuable aid, but some of them claim all the honours. This is what is happening even now in regard to our advocacy of an efficiently administered chain of waterfowl sanctuaries to save the sore-beset grey duck. Some Southland shootists are claiming credit for the initiation of that ideal. The deer menace was known long before the Forest and Bird Protection Society took it up. The writer well remembers the late Mr. Phillips Turner, when Director of the State Forest Service, deploring the fact that all our forests would be destroyed unless effective war was waged on the browsing trespassers. “Yes,” was the writer’s reply, “but you are all afraid to bell the cat; but the Forest and Bird Society will.” Some Acclimatisation Societies at that time called State Forests “our deer forests,” and the stalker’s position was strongly entrenched. A great effort was then made to awaken the public by the Forest and Bird Protection Society, which resulted in the “deer conference,” and then Government action against the animals. Some persistent antagonism to this necessary national action is still in evidence, but the public now realise the menace, and all that is required is a great extension of operations against the deer, goats and other pests of the forests. Sir Alexander Young and the Hon. W. E. Parry, as Minister of Internal Affairs, have both given their support in the arrangement of campaigns against the nuisance. The dust-bowl trouble in America is no new thing. Its gravity has been long recognised by a few, but no newspaper dared mention it, as such action would be considered by many as unpatriotic. A comparatively small newspaper,

however, broached the subject, and lost 1,000 dollars’ worth of advertisements the following week. The cat was, however, out of the bag, and America woke up to the vital need of action. The Forest and Bird Protection Society is giving continuing publicity to a similar state of affairs in this country. There is sad reason to believe that for the time this country has been settled the evil of erosion is more in evidence here than in America. It is pleasing to see that the authorities are recognising the gravity of the loss of top soil in farming country, and that scientific bodies are now coming up behind the Society and lending their aid in order to save New Zealand for posterity. The Forest and Bird Protection Society recognises that its duty is to enlist public sympathy and support in the preservation of forest and bird life. essential for the country’s welfare, but we should like all Chambers of Commerce and all other organisations and individuals with any interest in this country to recognise that the well-being of all is intimately allied with the conservation of the Dominion’s manageable natural resources. In this connection we deplore the fact that the State forest policy has in the past been directed too much to the exploitation of the timber resource of the native forests without adequate reservations for the protection of arable and pastoral lands which are the basis of the people’s livelihood.