The Daily Telegraph FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3029, 11 March 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1881.

In his paper on " The influence of Forests on climate and Rainfall," Mr F. S. Peppercorne, our late Municipal Engineer, quoted numerous well authenticated instances of the ruin of countries following rapidly upon tbe destruction of the forest 9. Tho subject is brought to remembrance by an article in a late number of the New Zealand Times. Our Wellington contemporary cays:—lt is only necessary to pacs from Blenheim to Nelson by land, taking Picton on the way, or visit by steamer some of the numerous bays and fiords which indent the northern coast of the Middle Island, to become convinced of the fact that in many places—indeed, in all places within easy access of the means of transport, the primeval forests are fast disappearing before the woodman's axe. In all favorable localities, far back in the recesses of the mountains, where nature has clothed the earth with an abundant vegetation, are heard the sounds of the ax_ and the mill. These indicate the progress of a busy and thriving industry, giving employment to numbers of our population. But unfortunately there is a dark side to this picture,and an observant traveller soon becomes convinced tbat these pioneer colonists have but one object in view, namely, to get the timber now growing in the valleys and on the hill sides, in the cheapest and most expeditious manner, to the market. They have no thought of what will become of the timber trade when these forests are worked out. " Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." In the indiscriminate scramble that is going on, only ono desire seems to per*ade the minds of those engaged in the occupation, viz., to obtain all the timber they can, at the least possible expenditure of time and money. Young trees and saplings are ruthlessly cut down, and the undergrowth destroyed, to make way for the felling of the larger trees. Under such circumstances, the total destruction of the forests is only a question of time, and a little observation will soon convince anyone that that time is not far distant. When Edmund Spencer, the author of the " Faerie Queen," visited Ireland, in the days of " Good Queen Bess," be graphically described the extensive forests on the banks of the Shannon, and in the mountain regions of Donegal, Galway, and Kerry. These have long since disappeared, and have given place to dreary moors and bleak mountain 6ides. The coast of Spain is another example, and also the south and south-west of France. Humboldt mentions a case which came within hia own observation in Central America, where tbe trees have all been felled, and rain entirely ceased. Again, there are regions in Southern Russia where it is well known that large forefts existed about 200 years ago, in the very spots now occupied by bare "steppes" the higher parts of which are perfectly I arid, so that the inhabitants are compel- '

led to live on the baaka.ofthe diminutive streamlets of «he lower valleys. And in the Caucasus!, the future of the Russian possessions i 3 menaced by tbe unsparing, and (as the official journal asserts) in many eases, the senseless destruction of the trees. In Daghestan, owing to the cutting down of the timber of the mountains to furnish fuel for the Caspian steamers, the contiguous valleys, which were formerly richly fertile, have become arid gullies, and other parts of Central Asia, such as the valley of the Oxis, formerly the seats of large populations, have now become barren deserts from tbe same cause. Although everyone is well aware of the immediate effect of denuding a country of its natiu-il foretts, New Zealand takes no warning from the melancholy examples of folly to be found in ali parts of the world. In 1874 Sir Julius Vogel pointed out that what is required, and in fact demanded, in the interests of the colony, is a system of forest falling by selection, and of planting, under State supervision, in order to repair tbe annual loss of timber. Unless this is done, and should no steps be; taken in this dire:tion, the consequences must inevitably be most disastrous to the future prosperity of all the colon'es, some of which are beginning to suffer from the scourge of alternating di.a-trous floods and still more dis?strous droughts, due chiefly to the destruction •if th.' forests.