Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 7, Issue 3 (July 1, 1932)

Save the Hill Forests

Save the Hill Forests.

In spite of the efforts of societies and a few far-seeing citizens, this kind of destruction still goes on in places where the bush is not only the best crop that the soil can produce, but where its preservation gives an essential beauty to the landscape. Our mountains in particular are suffering. Taranaki, fortunately, has its inalienable circular belt of forest, but many lower ranges and peaks are being stripped of their clothing of trees and ferns and all the varied life of the indigenous woodlands. Pirongia mountain, in the Waikato, comes to mind at the moment as an example. Originally it was covered with forest almost to its base, a noble picture from the Waipa Plain. Settlement of a kind has been permitted until its slopes are gradually being denuded. It is the water catchment area for a wide district, and the destruction of the forest imperils this purpose, for what reserves have been made are insufficient. Pirongia is an object-lesson; there are others.