Public Opinion.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1549, 10 February 1874, Page 112

Public Opinion.

CONSERVATION OF FORESTS. Canterbury Press. The question of preserving our forests is important not only in a commercial sense. In so far as the timber trade is concerned, that could be carried on if there were not a tree left, in the country: we should simply import what we wanted and pay accordingly. But there is another view of the matter which is of the very greatest importance to all classes in the colony; and that is, that trees are known to exercise a remarkable influence on climate and meteorology. What we are about to say has probably been said over and over again, and will, in all likelihood contain nothing that is new to most people. But, especially in a case of this kind, facts and arguments tending to rouse public attention cannot be too often reiterated or too strongly put, and we therefore make no apology for reproducing what so many speakers and writers haye often urged before us. And, although our remarks will, to a great extent apply to all part 3 of the colony, yet we imagine them to be more particularly applicable to the Province of Canterbury, where the want of native trees is so painfully apparent. It is well known that, at least in this and perhaps one other Province, the greatest drawback in the climate is the prevalence in summer time of hot, dry nor'-west winds. How, often do we notice, as has been the case this season, that up to perhaps the middle of December everything is growing luxuriantly, grass is plentiful, the crops coming nicely into ear, with the grain gradually filling and swelling, and promising an abundant yield; and then suddenly- comes the sirocco from the mountains, lasting perhaps, with hardly an interval, for two or three weeks, and the grass is parched and withered, the grain too rapidly ripened, shrivelled and shaken out, and the farmer sees his crop of forty bushels to the acre dwindle down to sometimes less then twenty. Everyone is praying for rain, hut week after week goes by and the sky still shows the same hard, brazen appearance, and if clouds come they pass away without even a shower. Now we can by no means affirm that the continuance of these nor'westers will be affected by the destruction of our existing forests or the planting of new ones. There appears to be amongst scientific men who have studied the question, a considerable difference of opinion regarding the causes of these winds. And we might perhaps be as far wrong if we said that tree planting would prevent nor'-westers as those who affirmed that the Goodwin Sands were owning to the erection of Tenterden steeple. But this at least we can say, that in all probability the planting of trees extensively over the country would deprive the hot winds of a great part of their evil influence. For the damage which they do is due chiefly to their dryness, and if we trust to the experience of other countries, trees are active agents in bringing increase of rainfall. In France, the destruction of the great forests was followed by such severe droughts that the Government were obliged to replant them. In Algeria the planting of large areas, chiefly with Australian gumtrees, has been the cause of a most beneficial change of the climate. In Egypt, where rain used formerly to be so rare that the country was supposed to be perfectly rainless, heavy showers now constantly fall, since the present and the late sovereign planted extensive forests. On the other hand Spain and Mexico, denuded of their trees, have had their climate changed for the worse, and the land parched and rendered barren. As for this country alone the facts speak for themselves. In the Assembly last year, Mr O'Neill stated that great floods and destruction of property in Wellington had followed the clearing away of the forests inthe Hutt valley. The Hon. Mr McLean, the aNtive Minister, said:" The river 3 were gradually shallowing, owing to the disappearance of the timber. The climate too had very materially altered. He believed that in some parts of the Province of Auckland there was much less rainfall than there was some, years ago when those parts were covered by forest." So that, although no man can say that tree planting will put a stop to nor'-westers, we may certainly affirm that it will deprive them of their sting by inducing a larger rain-fall over the country. It may be said that, in this Island, the eastern side is the least protected by tree, sand that there the climate is drier than on the West; and that in the North, though forests are more evenly distributed, except in Hawke's Bay, those parts where the trees have been extensively cleared away are rapidly beginning to feel the bad effects of their destruction. So that the question becomes, for the North Island, what is the best mode of preserving the remains of the native woods? for this Island, what is the best mode of covering the open country with the necessary protection by planting ? Confining ourselves at present to the second of these questions, it appears that there are two modes of proceeding. And we shall take the province of Canterbury as an example, because one of these modes has been already to some extent tried, because the second can be attempted without delay, and because the land laws here are more favorable to the experiment than elsewhere. The first plan which may be said to be at present in operation here, is that of giving a bonus for tree planting. By the Forest Tree 3 Planting Encouragement Act it is provided that any person who shall plant trees shall, when they are of a certain height, be entitled to two acres of Crown land for every acre so planted. The principle of this Act, in so far as it is intended, to encourage necessary improve* ment, is good. But we do not entirely agree with it. The bonus system is not, to our mind, satisfactory in thiisnstance. The xisk and expense are not sufficiently compensated for by the reward promised after .a term of years. And we believe that .practically the Act has not met with the success which its promoters anticipated -for it, very few, if any, persons having. •applied for land under its provisions. If .landowners are not sufficiently alive to their owciaterests to plant for themiielves,

we doubt whether the bonus offered under this Act will induce them to do so. The second plan is that of the planting of extensive areas by the Government itself. Thisi at least in this province, could be carried out with great advantage and not excessive cost. On a small scale it has already been commenced, by planting in certain places on the different railway lines, and we observe amongst the reserves lately confirmed by Provincial Council a belt of twenty chains in width, from the Avon to the Waipara, half a mile from the sea, " for planting purposes." But this is not sufficient. It is known that pines and trees of the same class grow freely on our plains, and inde pendently of their use towards improving the climate, pines are valuable for timber. Why, then, should not belts of land, say of a quarter of a mile each, be set apart throughout the province, were land is still unsold, from the mountains to the sea, or north and south over the plains, and planted out of the public funds, with such trees as would grow best in the various localities: pines, or gums, or English forest trees ? There are few objects to which the public money could with more propriety be devoted: and, probably, without reserving more of our waste lands, there are many pieces already set apart which could be made available for this purpose. As for the cost and difficulty of carrying out such a proposal, they would probably be found to be comparatively small, and a machinery for effecting it in the speediest possible way might be found in the Road Boards. If these bodies were allowed an extra special grant for performing the work —for fencing the land and planting the trees —receiving also supplies of plants from the Government nursery, and if for the first two or three years, the young plantations were maintained under the supervision of the Steward of Reserves, there would be no necessity for creating a new department or for expending too much of the public money. This is a matter which affects all classes of the population ; the poor more than the rich, the small farmer more than the town merchant. We should be glad to see our Provincial Government take up the question. There are many works set down in the Estimates for the present year, which could more easily be dispensed with than this, and an expenditure, of even some thousands, for tree planting, would beyond all doubt, be more useful to the proviuce than perhaps two thirds of those at present proposed by the Executive. But, passing beyond our own province, and looking|both at the conservation of the existing forests and the encouragement necessary for the planting of new ones, we may express a decided hope that the Colonial Government will act according to the expressed opinions of their chief. It will not be enough for them " to take the matter into their most serious consideration." The next session of the Assembly ought not to be allowed to pass without the enactment of laws to put a stop to the present reckless and stupid destruction of our trees, and to provide for the future shelter of the country either by encouraging private, or undertaking public, plantations. Land and Water. A correspondent gives the following as to the results of the International Congress of Agriculturists and Foresters held at Vienna: — There has been one very important topic for us Germans, and well dealt with by Herr Bernhardt, Forstmeister in Neustadt Eberswalde, near Berlin, N. This was forest-preservation and the right of governments to interfere with the destruction of forests. Herr Bernhardt procured evidence from history, law, and politics, that government is justified to interfere with any private right, in order to prohibit the ill-use and bad consequences of the same, in the general interest. Forests are features of the land ; they are rendered in the maps, they are the feeders of rivers, and the special attractors of the clouds, and their existence in a certain proportion to the open fields and in certain localities ought to be recorded and guaranteed by government against private temptation—now so largely at work all over Europe —to hew them down and to convert them into money. The following resolutions were, consequently, proposed and carried : 1. It is recognized that, in order to put a stop to the progressing devastation of forests, international agreements are needed, especially to provide and cultivate in a rational manner such forests as are situate at the origin and on the banks of the large rivers; as it has become evident that the unscrupulous spoliation of such forests is the cause of sudden fluctuations of the watercourses inconsistent with the existence of shipping and industry on the same, and leads to the watercourses being filled up by sand, being flooded, and the banks destroyed, of agricultural plots and meadows being spoiled, bridges endangered, and all these consequences to be irrelevant of the frontiers of the different countries. 2. It has been further recognized that that part of the conservatory duties relating to those forests situated on the sides of mountains, on the sea-coasts, and on sundry hills and other exposed places, is of international importance; and that it is a duty of all nations to create strict laws against the negligence and carelessness of proprietors of such forests, which serve as barriers against the warfare of wind, weather, and lavines.

3. It has been also recognized that we are still wanting an exact knowledge of those disturbances which have been, or may be, owing to tho devastation of forests; and that, therefore, to gain an exact foundation for legislatory interference will be the first object in view. The Imperial Minister of Agriculture is requested, in consequence, to enter into negotiations with the respective governments, in order to procure statistic returns upon the present state of common watercourses, frontiers, and sea-coasts, as to their protection by forests, and to regard this as the next end iu view. Many a fine thing came out in the course of delate upon this topic, especially as to the moiio of modern proprietorship, many ricii speculates buying up the

estates, cutting down the woods never meant to be cut down, and re-selling the land in parcels with a profit of, at least, a hundred per cent, and even more—a consequence of our easy transfer of land. Of course there was a very powerful opposition, Vienna being, so to say, the very nest of the enemy, but statistic and sophisticated argumentation will not undo deeds done and facts facing you with all the sternness of a battle-field after a day's hard work with cannon and musket; so this powerful opposition was easily sorted and sent to cover, and the Germans carried the day and set up their resolutions, which innocent though they look, nre like a sabre undrawn.—the sharp face is inside of them.