The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1882.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3543, 16 November 1882, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1882.

The question of timber supply is as important to us in New Zealand, as it is to Americans, and tbe causes leading to tbe destruction of forests in the one country are operating in the other. From the Journal of Forestry (U.S.) we take the following interesting article :—The vast and rapidly increasing extent of the American railroad system, which at the present moment can scarcely be less than 100,000 miles, has a most important bearing upon the question of our forest supplies. This effect is not limited to the vast consumption that they occasion in supplying ties and other timber materials for the new constructions aud renewals that are constantly going on. These roads are everywhere penetrating the timber regions of the country, many of them being built for the express purpose of getting out the timber that was before inaccessible by the old methods of floating upon rivers or hauling in winter by teams. It is but a comparatively recent period since this feature in lumbering was introduced, and its direct and speedy effect is to hasten the exhaustion of these supplies, that were going off too fast for the needs of the present and of the future. The obvious effects of this will be to keep up the supply at the mills so long as there are forests from whence it can be obtained. They will distribute the manufactured lumber over a wider area and to greater distances to meet the wants of regions tbat have already used ' up their own forest resources, and they will doubtless extend for a little while the time of apparent ' abundance' and of ' inexhaustible supply.' But while they are doing this, they will be every day equalising the ruin that must inevitably follow this vast and rapidly increasing destruc-

tion, that will happen to the country in the near future, unless seasonable and adequate measures are taken to meet these future wants by extensive and judicious planting, and by effectual measures for economising our remaining supplies, We shall be soon enough admonished of this necessity by the rapidly gaining prices of our timber ; but it is not wise to wait for this extremity until it is directly upon us. We should anticipate these wants; for it takes many years for a seedling sprout to become a tree fit for timber and boards. Tbe duty before us is a most important one, and it presents two principal points for consideration, namely: as to how far and in what manner the General Government can withdraw its remaining timber lands from entry under existing laws and place them under regulations calculated to se cure the greatest benefit to the present in the use of timber that is now fully mature, and that shall at the same time have due regard to the requirements of the future ; secondly, as to how we may most thoroughly impress upon the owners of land the importance of planting. Almo«t the whole of our lands, excepting which remain under the care of the General Land Office, belong to farmers in actual possession, under absolute titles that assure perpetual ownership. We cannot require them to plant trees nor prevent them from cutting off their woodlands—at least not under the present state of public opinion; and nothing but sad necessity alone could ever hereafter bo change tnls opinion as to justify and support restrictive legislation on this subject. We cannot dictate in this matter. We certainly can never plant woodlands upon private property at the public expense, unless in the exceptional and local instances where this becomes a public necessity for the protection of some other interest. It has been shown by long experience in Europe that timber can be grown with profit upon lands suitable for no other kind of use, and that by careful and intelligent management a permanent supply may be maintained. It bas long since been found that nothing will 60 effectually restore fertility to worn-out lands as a crop of trees, with the accumulation of organic materials that is constantly forming under them from the air and the soil. It is also proved by the experience of every careful observer that groves of woodland afford protection to the surrounding fields in the cooling and equalising influence in mitigating the extremes of heat and cold, and by a perceptible and often decided effect in preventing injuries from drought. They afford resting places for insectivorous birds, and thus promote the destruction of insects to the profit of our grains and fruits. They screen us against the hot and dry winds of stammer and the sweeping and piercing storms of winter, that are sometimes so severely felt, especially in the prairie regions of the West. We must diligently study the methods of cultivation that lead to most profitable results, and the kinds of trees that produce the most thrifty growth and the most valuable products. In short, our first and greatest dnty is to impress upon the owners of the land that it is in their interest to devote a portion of their land to the planting of groves of trees. We should establish experiment stations for the careful study of the requirements and capabilities of soils and of different kinds of trees, and we should publish the results of these observations in a form particularly calculated to impress the importance of these measures and to teach the plainest aud simplest rules for securing their success. If we rightly read the signs of the times, public attention is already awakening upon this subject, and we should lead this question, and not wait to be driven by it, in whatever measures may appear necessary for the promotion of this object.