I don't kmow the details of the regulations in New Zealand but am
prepared to accept that it is regulated (but are the regulations
properly enforced?).

My concerns are principally:

1. Regulation makes it legal but doesn't make it right and who says the
regulations will ensure the plants are not wiped out. Large scale
destruction of natural resources - regulated or not - is, historically,
the prelude to their demise. For example, the fishing industry in the
North Sea has been regulated for years - and it has been equally obvious
to anybody who thinks about it that for years we have been heading
straight towards where we are now - closure of the whole fishery because
Cod are on the brink of extinction around our coasts.

2. Emotionally, I find it impossible to accept the removal of 150 year
plants from the wild - as do many others. Look at the fuss there is in
this country when developers - completely legally - remove old trees. If
it isn't acceptable in the UK, then it isn't acceptable in New Zealand
or anywhere else.
--
Larry Stoter









Considering the relatively minimal amount of development going on in NZ I find
it incredible that Larry's pursuing this point. There's a lot more damage
being done in the rain forrests of South America. I would have thought if
anything was going to upset anyone, it would have been the wholesale
destruction of hundreds of thousands of acres of rainforest, not the relatively
small number of tree ferns being relocated from NZ to other parts of the world.

I understand Larry being concerned about the environment, and I think we've all
heard what he has to say, but this is a UK based gardening newsgroup, not a
newsgroup for environmental campaigners. This issue involves the NZ government
and can only be changed there, not within the UK. Maybe this thread could be
wound up now?

Dave.