It is not the disposition of everybody to find tongues in trees, books in running brooks, and sermons in stones.
Fortunately, however, it is the disposition of a few in every community, and it is an attitude of mind most deserving of the widest encouragement, especially in the young people of today. Nature-study is not achieving its full purpose if it does not inculcate a real love of Nature and the deepest respect for it. All whose sentiments towards Nature are of an enlightened kind will regard with interest a movement now launched in the dominion in the formation of a New Zealand Forest and Bird Protection Society.
The objects of this society, the organising secretary of which is Mr H. G. Ell, M. P., must commend themselves cordially to all who recognise the importance of practical and organised effort animated by the purpose of securing the conservation of what we may call wild Nature, and affording it protection against vandalism in its various shapes and guises. In the matter of flora and fauna New Zealand has been so peculiarly favoured that these afford an absorbing field for study. The native forests and native bird life of the dominion when settlement first established itself on these shores were possessed of a charm and interest which now survive under much more difficult circumstances.
On what remains New Zealanders should be intelligent enough to place the highest value, as on a delightful and irreplacable national asset. The native forests of the dominion have suffered sad havoc - in some respects, necessarily so - from the axe of the settler and the ravages of the sawmill. The remarkable native bird life of which earlier writers have said so much has suffered severely. Ruthless sportsmen have slaughtered it without compunction, and, driven back to remote districts where natural conditions still remain almost unaltered, it survives as best it can the attacks of such enemies as a mistaken view of the consequence has caused to be imported into the country.
In Otago, in the Catlins district there are still most impressive areas of native forest to be visited, but one thing which cannot fail to strike the observer is the lamentable absence of bird life. Such quietude as now exists is depressing, and yet the tale of the bird-life which existed there a few years ago shows how much the natural conditions have actually been disturbed. There is not the slightest doubt that there is plenty of work for the New Zealand Forest and Bird Protection Society to undertake.
What we do hope is that this new Society will awaken the public to a keener realisation of the value and character of a national heritage in the conservation of which it has not hitherto shown the concern that might have been expected of it. It is to be trusted, therefore, that the Society will secure beyond anticipations support such as it deserves.
• A rumour of a somewhat extraordinary kind is current among the Maoris of the Waikato (reports the New Zealand Herald's Huntly correspondent). It is expected that a large meeting will be held shortly, or as soon as the restrictions which prevent the Maoris from travelling have been removed, in order that the assembled tribes may discuss the advisability of sending ''King'' Te Rata and Tupu Taingakawa, his Prime Minister, to London, to place the grievances of the race before King George, and to bring before the notice of the Imperial Parliament alleged breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi.- ODT, 16.3.1914.
