Public Opinion

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1548, 6 February 1874, Page 108

Public Opinion

CONSERVATION OF FORESTS. Cantebbury' Pbess. We have already adverted to one of the two questions which, in Mr VogePs opinion, are really the most important for the Colony'just now. -Whatever opinions there may be regarding the question of our trade with the South Seai Islands, we imagine that there can he little doubt about the other, namely the conservation of our forests. As the Premier very rightly observed:. —•"There is a most reckless waste of the timber of the country. No consideration is shown for the fact that those who get timber in improper seasons, or who and make use of it as it should not be used, are injuring not only their own property, but the property of others, by the evil reputation which they are gaining for the timber of the country." This is unfortunately only too true. There is a certain carelessness about workmen and many others in the colonies which we believe would not be tolerated in the old country. As an instance of what we mean: how often have we seen on newly made roads heavy wagons deliberately driven in single file, each following in the track of the preceding one, and cutting deep into the road-way which has just cost .perhaps a large sum to construct, when by waiting a short time and allowing the material to consolidate, a good hard road would have resulted ! It is just the same with timber. Bushmen, seeing a tree which it may be worth their while to cut down, proceed at once to clear a way to it, and probably in so doing destroy perhaps a score of younger.trees, which in time might have also become profitable. Not content with this, it has often (though not so much so of late years) been their habit to purposely destroy by fire hundreds of acres of valuable forest. Dr Hochstetter sa y S: _«Extensive districts which had formerly been covered with kauri wood, are now totally destitute of such, and the extermination of that noble tree progresses from year to year at such a rate, that its final extinction is as certain as that of the natives During my stay in Auckland I was able to observe from my windows, during an entire fortnight, dense clouds of smoke whirling up, which arose from an enormous conflagration of the woods nearest the town. When the fire had subsided, a large, beautiful tract of forest lay there in ashes." And we in Canterbury can well remember the great lush fire on the Peninsula which destroyed many thousands of acres of most valuable bush, and that at Oxford a year or two ago which had the like fatal result. It is true that of late these fires have been less frequent, partly on account of the heavy damages recovered in one of the above cases, partly because the thick )skulls-,of 4he bushmen have at length become pervious to tbe idea that their reckless destruction of the forests is likely to be hurtful even to themselves. But although they refrain from such wholesale •slaughter, they do not, we fear, yet practise much more care in their manner of extracting profitable timber from the bush. It is a well known fact that New Zealand forests do not like having daylight let in on them. It is surprising how fast the noble trees die off, decay, and fall, when the axe or the fire has cleared away their surrounding protection, and allowed the wind and sunlight to penetrate their recesses. And probably no care or forethought of ours can now, in Canterbury at least, prevent those of our native forests yet left from sharing in very few years the fate of those which have gone before. The mischief, we fear, is already done. The carelessness of our sawyers and proprietors of bush has in the last twenty years done damage which it will take many scores of years to repair. But besides this there is another source of injury to which Mr Vogel alludes, and ■which may still be prevented. We mean the reckless felling of timber at all seasons of the year. In a paper read at Nelson lately by the Rev J. C. Halcombe may be found some remarks on this subject which, although probably only repeating what we all know perfectly well, are none the less valuable for that. As the author observes, our trees " are commonly subjected to such treatment as causes the bestg rown English oak to perish in a very few years Throughout Europe timber is felled only in the depth of winter. ... .In this country it is felled at all seasons of the year, the sawyers preferring it full of sap as being in that state easier to cut. . . and then people blame the timber so treated for not lasting." This, and the want of proper seasoning before beiug used are, .according to the author, the chief reasons •why New Zealand timber, otherwise as <*ood as any other, has bad reputation for fasting. Now these at least are evils which we can remedy. We have in this colooy many timber merchants, who are, we persume, highly respectable tradesmen, and who are, in point of fact, capable of undertaking very responsible duties outside their particular trades. How is it, we may ask, that they, who must know of the evil, allow it to continue perpetually, when they could at any time to put a stop to it ? That it should suit them to supply their customers with inferior wares for the sake of a corresponding profit we must not suppose. Yet, as the remedy is in their hands, and as they have not, so far, either in Christcburch or elsewhere in New Zealand, attempted to use it, the blame must to a great extent re6t with them. A ride through the bush;in any part of the country will showhow general this destructive habit ; is. Tbe saw mills are never idle, and tbe axe of the bushman never still. Every day, summer and winter, the finest trees in the forest are to seen falling on all Bides and moreover, acre after acre of less valuable timber is perpetually being often through sheer, carelessness and waste' ffl \_ 11 ;'*'; 11 :f ' ; ;Weiear that mere writing and speaking on this subject, willido no long as the bushmen themselves are allowed to go on in their usual careless way, taking .no thought for the morrow, felling at random .their own and other people's trees, and' destroying' a ' dozen] Hseleßsly for every one they turn into

timber, so long will they make no attempt at reform. Even that usually most powerful of arguments, the argument of the pocket, will fail to persuade them For they fancy that they have but to clear out all the timber where they are, and then migrate to some other spot where they will find equally abundant stores to destroy. And so long as the public, who buy timber for various purposes, and the architects who control the supplies for the different buildings, are content to use inferior timber, so long will the merchants, in spite of reason, continue to supply it. Reason and argument are, and always will be, thrown away. One thing is certain, that at the present rate it is impossible that our forests can last for many more years. Therefore, in the interests of the timber trade itself, and in the interests of the public who use the material, it is absolutely necessary that the Government should step in, and with a high hand interpose some remedy. But, before considering what that remedy should be, and what steps ought to be taken to replace, if possible, the valuable estate we have lost, there is another phase of the subject to which we would briefly draw attention.

AN AMERICAN VIEW OF THE ASHANTEE WAR, New York Times, Although little attention has been given on •this side of the Atlantic to the warlike expedition which England has undertaken to the Gold Coast of Africa, there are considerations in connection with it which are of considerable interest to Americans. The enterprise is not in any respect similar to the Abyssinian campaign. That was for the purpose merely of rescuing British subjects and other Europeans retained as prisoners in the hands of a semi-barbarous chief. When once their release was secured, the object and the immediate results of the expedition were complete. But this war upon the Ashantees more nearly resembles one of tbe various steps by which so much of India has become attached to the British crown. It will not end with the punishment of a warlike and troublesome race of savages, but will lead, perhaps, to annexation of territory, and certainly to the advance of civilization into a thickly peopled district of Africa, and to the developement of new resources for trade and commerce. The territory, or a part of it, on the gold coast, was formerly held by a corporation of traders known as tbe "African Company," and twice during that occupation the Ashantee King made descents upon the forts and settlement. It is about fifty year 3 since the British Government took over the possessions from the company, and their "first experience of it was an impressive one. The Governor, Sir Charles M'Carthy, shortly after entering upon his duties, started on an expedition into the interior for the purpose of negotiation, but he and his party were suddenly surrounded by a band of 10,000 Ashantees and cut to pieces. This led, after two or three years, to hostile reprisals, and the result was a defeat and dethronement of the King at the battle of Accra. The new monarch bought a peace, gave hostages from his own family, signed a treaty, and restored the head of Sir Charles M'Carthy swathed in silk cloth and covered with Arabic charms. From that time no actual warfare took place till now, although dissatisfaction and constant breaches of faith ia the fulfilment of the terms of the treaty have prevailed. A conflict has long appeared inevitable; but it was precipitated by tbe recent treaty with the Dutch, by which Elmina, a portion of their territory, has been transferred to England. The Ashantees are odo of the most powerful of the African nations, numbering about three millions, of which two hundred thousand are fighting men, described as athletic and warlike. The Government is a despotism, the religion fetichism, modified by the teachings of African Mohammedanism. The people are advanced in some of the arts, and the upper classes are more especially noted for a few of the amenities of more civilized nations. But their customs are of the most cruel character. Every twenty-one days a fete takes place, when maddened by rum and wine, made from a native palm, the natives commit the most horrible atrocities. They eat the hearts and drink the blood of their conquered enemies, and when a freeman dies, slaves are killed to " wet his grave." When the king dies, human sacrifices, we are told, amount to thousands; in fact it is, as a traveller in the country has described it, a land of murder. Yet the natural wealth is great. The climate is healthful, except along the coast, the land is rich, the vegetable productions luxurious and abundant, and the wealth in minerals, especially gold, apparently very great. The king's palace i 3 gorgeous with silk and gold, and decorations of the finest cloth, and he himself moves abroad through his capital attended by two thousand counsellors, freemen, captains, and other attendants, with all the emblazonment of eastern mignificence. But Coomassie, the capital, is to be destroyed, the king is to be dethroned, and the Ashantee power is to be broken beyond redemption. Such is the order that has gone forth from the British Government, and all necessary resources are being made available to carry that order into effect. The difficulties are far greater than they were in Abyssinia. The road to Coomassie lies through 120 miles of dense forest, teeming with malaria of the worst kind, filled with venomous reptiles, and especially adapted to ambuscades oh the part of an enemy whose numbers are overwhelming, and with fwhom recklessness of life is a most prominent peculiarity. But the ' undertaking is worth the danger. The | success of the expedition means the strengthening of British power, but it also means the opening up of a very extensive region of the African interior to the commerce of the world. Timbuctoo is the centre of a large inland trade with, the rich regions of Guinea. This has hitherto been exclusively native, but with the extinction of the Ashantee

power it becomes the property of any nation that chooses to share it through the medium of Cape Coast Castle. It is not then difficult to forsee that, with a commercial centre developing on: the west, and another at Zanzibar on the east, the spread of civilization, the abolition of slavery and barbarian savagery, the unfolding of the long hidden wealth of the intervening continent, is but a question of comparatively short time. The unhealthiness of the western coast is due to causes that may in a great measure be overcome by human means; it is not an insurmountable difficulty; and although, it may, and certainly doesincreasethedangers of the expedition now setting out, it will not interfere with the development of trade, the extension of railways, and the new enterprises that will be opened to mercantile nations by its success.