The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1888. SHAMEFUL WASTE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1767, 15 February 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1888. SHAMEFUL WASTE.

The cutting down of expenditure and national economy are not always aynonymous terms, for it Bometimerf pays better m the long run to spend than to Bavo. indeed, thoro are oxampleß of a parsimony which is the equivalent of extravagance, m that the present saving means a future large expenditure or loss, a policy summed up m the words of a shrewd old Paw about the inadvisableness of being "penny~ «yi*io and pound-foolish." We more than fear, for. we are quite sure, that Parliament m its eagerness for retrench, merit has fallen into this very err< r m cutting off tb« vote for the Forest's lJepartment. New Zealand po-steses m her native forests a store of wraith which m the years to come would i-tand ns m good stead were it not 'hat we suffer it to be Bhara«-ful)y wasted and recklessly destroyed. Sir Julius Vog»>l is the only one of all our stptcßmen who has ever earnestly endeavored to put a | stop to all this and to conserve for the ! future our magnificent timbor resources, ' and it wus due to his energy, persistence, and we might write enthusiasm, that at length a Forest Conservation Department was established, having at its heftd Profeesar Kirk, with whom the labors of his office were a labor of love, A beginning was made of nurseries to take the place of the natiro timber an thin was cleared away, and caro was tatceil to use the existing forest judi£l«#sly and to protect it from the inroads ,oj! £re. At first it could not be .expected *M Jho foreit refeniW would wholly defray the jcojp.tjt of the Department, but nothing is more certain than that it would speedily not only have &>nr thii, but yielded a large and grow- < Wft «rpl^ ; indved, a« a matter of fact tli- ugh the Depar^ent hid then bot n only two or three yeartin ezjutcnc; the revenue lajt year was wuKin ♦ fe^ ikW^adtof the t^>tal exponiittr«. But fchii wm rMiTerkhaUsß on© of tk« Depart* mentf Mlaoi.ed by Minister* to be r*. <f^|fjtjttftxiitfnce ; »»d tbeyhd

eir way, albeit, not without & protest by . Mr Bruce and others. And what is the result f Jn one instance alone we have a magnificent Kauri forest (one of th© few yet remaining) destrojed by fire, 100,000 acres cf timber being destroyed, valued at not less than three quarters of a million of money . How thin fire (at ? Pubiputu) originated we have not learned, j but it is not unlikely that it was wilfully' caused by guindiggers. At least bo we judge from what we read m the * 4 /vuck- j land Werald " which has the following! m a recent issue: — " »t is eaid that! sine© the beginning of the year 40,000 ' acres of bush has been practically destroyed by fire m the Mercury Bay district through the gumdiggers desiring to get the ground cleared to get at the gum. One bush, which contained 18,000,000 feet of timber, has been rendered practically worthless by the fire running through it . In getting the timber oat some j£3O,OQQ would havehad to have expended m la l or, whereas all the gum which will bo obtained through v killing the goose,"' will not total over £6000. Some of the settlers say thas it would be far better to give the Puhipuhi forest as an endowment for the construction of the Kamo-Kawakawa railway rather than it should perish, bb it probably will, by the medium of tbe gumdiggers 1 firestick." barely such a state of things as it here described calls for epeedy interference, And surely it were better to spend a few hundreds a year upon the maintenance of a Forest Department than to suffer so much valuable national property to be recklessly and wilfully wasted.