Sydney Porter-Notes on Neiv Zealand Birds



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forest which have been untouched by man. Great forest giants raise

their heads a hundred to two hundred feet above the mass to tree-ferns,

fuschias, giant mosses, and a hundred other forest trees. Hardly a

naked branch or trunk is visible for all are clothed in a luxuriant

garment of mosses, ferns, and lichens. Nowhere in the whole world do

ferns grow in such profusion or variety. Every forest giant is festooned

with lovely grey green lichen, climbing ferns, and huge forest creepers.

So dense is the undergrowth as to be absolutely impenetrable in some

parts, one’s progress is counted not by the miles per hour but by the

hours per mile.


Everywhere is damp and dark and it seems to rain perpetually.

The luxuriant vegetation is no doubt due to the excessive rainfall.

The shades of green are wonderful; never have I seen such a range,

from the almost black of the crepe fern to the pale greenish white of

some of the lichens.


Very often the forests are destroyed wantonly, but sometimes

sawmills are established ; all the large timber is felled and gradually

the felling operations are extended until forest railways have to be

built extending sometimes twenty-five miles or so from the mills.

The finest specimens of the trees are felled ; some I have seen have

been fifteen feet through at the base and by counting the rings I have

ascertained that some must have been 750 years old, rivalling the famous

American “ Redwoods ” themselves.


When the choicest timber has been felled and taken away, with

a dog-in-the-manger attitude the rest of the forest is burnt. It is heart¬

breaking to see the flames licking up the magnificent timber, the tree-

ferns, and the general undergrowth. Nothing is spared. On every hand

the devastation is appalling ; no battle-fields in Flanders ever looked

worse than the forest country through which the fire has passed.

And the tragedy of it is that most of the land which is now being burnt

is no good for settlement, being far too steep and precipitous. In a

few years it becomes like the arid mountainous regions of Arabia.

I once asked the manager of a large timber company who were burning

one of the most magnificent remnants of native forest left in the country

what was the need for such destruction. I was told that it was customary

to burn the forest after the big timber had been taken out!



