Author(s): Peter Thomas

Natural History

‘Trespasser!’

This was the allegation, repeated in a newspaper in 1946, made by the State Forest Service against NRW Thomas for his unauthorised visit to Waipoua Forest.

Who saved the Waipoua Kauri Forest of Northland, New Zealand? Why has nothing of any substance been written about the campaign to protect the forest? Was this New Zealand’s first significant conservation campaign?

In 1952, 9000 hectares of forest was proclaimed a Forest Sanctuary after 25 years of campaigning. Retired Classics and History teacher Peter Thomas decided to see what role his father, lawyer and horticulturist Norman Russell Withiel Thomas (NRW), played in the campaign. This account does not pretend to be ‘the’ history of the campaign, but rather an account of the role that NRW and others played in the struggle to save the forest.

Waipoua Forest ‘…. one of nature’s great masterpieces.’
Sir John Faulkner, ex-Provost of Edinburgh, 1949.