The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 6, Issue 5 (November 2, 1931)
“No Good to Our Bush.”
“No Good to Our Bush.”
A veteran North Island sawmiller, who has had to do with the bush all his life, was discussing with me the other day the importance of the inter-relation of forest and native bird life. “Birds,” he said, “are absolutely necessary to the life of our indigenous trees; they destroy immense quantities of insects and grubs which are injurious to the timbers. And anything which interferes with the birds interferes also with the trees. There is the opossum; though it is protected for the sake of its skin it is absolutely no
good to our bush. It eats the young leaves and the berries on which the birds depend for their food, and it also interferes with the nests and eats the eggs and nestlings when it gets the chance. It should not be tolerated any more than the stoat or the weasel; it should never have been introduced.”