 |
|
A
CENTURY has passed since the first organised
settlement of New Zealand began. The country, wild and unknown, was
covered for the greater part by an almost impenetrable forest which had to
be cleared for grazing and agriculture.
In their efforts to rid the land of its cumbering bush, the settler
and bush-feller attacked it with fire and axe. Thus the price of progress
was the destruction of our native trees, and although we can point with
pride to a century of achievement which
has transformed New Zealand from a forested wilderness into a rich
farming country, we have also to remember that some of our forest
destruction has been hasty and ill-considered.
We have perhaps grown accustomed to the sight
of blackened stumps and charred logs which are silent reminders of an
ancient glory gone for ever. Tourists, however, frequently comment on this.
That outspoken critic, George Bernard Shaw, said that some of our scenery
reminded him of the ghastly battlefields on the Western Front, where the
trees had been battered and smashed and burnt
by shells.
This is perfectly true. We boast of our New Zealand
scenery; we have mutilated much of the best. Nature, however, is exacting a
penalty. From one end of the country to
the other, the clearing of land which should have been conserved has
brought in its train a host of tragic consequences. Land-slides and floods,
erosion and silting, the spread of scrub and noxious weeds, a serious
shortage of native timber—fortunately met by the planting of exotics
—are all part of our national legacy of
one hundred years of settlement. If we are wise, we shall base our
future attitude towards our forests on the bitter lessons we have learned
from the past.
The legacy of settlement and it's indiscriminate
clearance of natural vegetation. A wash-out in the Hawke's Bay Province.
|
|
Primeval
bush. Most New Zealanders now realise that forest country should be
protected from destruction by fire or axe. Yet at one time the aim of
some settlers was to destroy as much bush as possible. Many of the
present-day problems of erosion are due to indiscriminate burning of
forested areas. This and the three succeeding sketches were drawn by ' I.G.'
in 1919, and the originals are in the collection of the Colonists' Museum,
Auckland.
Fierce flames sweep across the
forest
Even the charred boles in this scene of
desolation are doomed to fall and rot.
The Settlers homestead and
paddocks take the place of the forest. |
![[Company Logo Image]](_borders/New%20Image.JPG)
.htm_cmp_ricepapr110_hbtn.gif)
