THE MOTU TIMBER.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 69, 25 March 1901, Page 1

THE MOTU TIMBER.

(To-the Editor of the Times.) Sir, —Mr Prouse reports that there is at least one million pounds worth of marketable timber in a comparatively small part of the forest which extends nearly from Waikaremoana to the East Cape, and which covers a large proportion of the Peninsula, and no one who has any knowledge of the locality will consider that the estimate is too great. One of the great advantages of this form of wealth is that, with the exception of the cost of machinery, the whole of the money would be earned and circulated in the district. Now, the question is, is the community going to take the trouble to earn this money or not ? If it is to bo done, there is only one way to do it, and that is to get a railway of some sort into the timber, and that within a few years, and in the meantime to stay the waste and destruction which is now and has for years boen going on. If wo are to wait for the lino, which is now like a wounded snake dragging its slow length across the Gisborne flats, even the youngest of us can hardly hope to have his coffin made of Motu timber.

If instead of a million pounds worth of timber we had not only expert testimony, but the evidence of our senses that there were a million’s worth of gold in the Motu gravel, how long'would it be before the staid citizens of Gisborne would be tumbling over each other in their eagerness to secure some of the rubbish? Even if it was demonstrated that the gold could not bo put upon the market for less than £6 per ounce, which is about the New Zealand average, would it rnako any difference ? Not a bit. Though there would be a dead loss of a third of the money, the demand for opening up the district by road and rail would be such that the Government would be forced into immediate and strenuous action. There are about 13,000 men employed in goldmining in the country, and they carry on. the business at an annual loss of about L 800.000; yet, if it were proposed in parliament that this silly business should be stopped and the men employed in making roads and railways, the proposer would be looked on as an enemy to his kind. There are many forms of human folly, but this appears to beono of the most unaccountable, or rather it can be accounted, for only on the supposition that the partially civilised mind must be allowed some form of gambling, and mining provides a means by which those whose high moral tone prevents them from putting a pound or so on the tote may gratify their instincts. It is similar to the feeling which induces people to satisfy a natural desire for homicide by helping to send contingents to Africa. Quite respectable people who would not care to be seen cutting anyone’s throat personally. With regard to the timber, what is most urgently needed at the present time is that settlers in the timbered districts should have some guarantee that will induce them to stop from destroying their best crop. If such guarantee is not forth, coming in a few weeks the work of destruction will again be in full swing.—l am, etc., Motor.