Author's tree tale his first and last for kids

Taupo author Rowley Habib's latest book, The Building That Ate Trees, is his first work aimed at children. Photo / Laurilee McMichael

Author and playwright Rowley Habib (Rore Hapipi) has produced his first book for children, a cautionary fable about the dangers of complacency in the face of impending disaster.

The Building That Ate Trees, written by Mr Habib and illustrated by Dean Stebbing, tells the story of the lords of the forest, rimu, totara, matai and kahikatea, who scoffed when a puny-looking building appeared in their valley. A building, as it turned out, with an insatiable appetite for trees.

Mr Habib, who grew up in the sawmilling settlement of Oruanui in the 1930 and 1940s, weaves Maori lore and environmentalism together in the tale, which he describes as a story of early New Zealand and of the Taupo area.

As a youngster in Oruanui the sawmill was a constant in Mr Habib's early years. The area was famous for its big totara trees, so much so that when Sir Apirana Ngata started up the Te Wananga Whakairo Rakau, The National Carving School at Rotorua, he had a block at Oruanui designated for timber for the carvers - the stumps can still be seen.

In Mr Habib's youth, there was no thought given to preserving the majestic trees.

"When I grew up they had already cut out the big totara and matai but I seem to recall hearing it [operating] from the top of the big hill O-A-Tia, the sound of the steam hauler dragging the logs down. It had a peculiar sound. Every now and then it would go 'clunk, clunk' but I would not have seen it operating."

Later, when he learned of the fight to save the native trees at Pureora in the 1970s, Mr Habib, who had a nephew working in the sawmill, sympathised with the workers, but nowadays he's on the side of the trees.

His family still owns a block at Oruanui and although the totara and matai were removed, a covenant has been placed on the land and the native trees are regrowing.

Mr Habib said the story of the sawmill and the trees had been in his head for years but he decided several months ago to write it down.

"I just had this picture of the mill out at Oruanui which, compared to the surroundings, was just a tiny thing and yet all the logs of that area went into it and were chopped up, eaten up."

Although the book is aimed at children, Mr Habib said the worst thing would have been to write down to them.

"There's some big words in it but rather than writing down to [children] they can look up the words or ask their parents - I used to read to my children, and if there were long words, I'd do my best to explain. My instinct said this is exactly what children would like."

However, he also says this book is his last in this genre.

"The problem with writing children's stories was, I found, I began to think about children's stories, and I don't want to be a children's story writer. I've got my adult stories to write."

In addition to The Building That Ate Trees, one of Mr Habib's best-known poems has also been included in the newly released hardback book The Penguin Book of New Zealand War Writing. His poem, The Raw Men: For The Maori Battalion was written in 1962 and first published in 1964. It has since been published in several anthologies, with 530-page The Penguin Book of New Zealand War Writing the latest.