THE STATE FORESTS SCHEME.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1600, 7 August 1874, Page 313

THE STATE FORESTS SCHEME.

Canterbury Press. When publishing a summary of the States Forests Bill, we pointed out that it was to a great extent a Bill for the acquisition of a railway estate. It appears at first sight to be a compound of two measures accidentally jumbled together. Wo take it up as a Bill intended for the conservation of forests and forest culture, and wo conio across a clause releasing the provinces from liability on account of railway expenditure. What in the world, one is inclined to ask, has the protection of forests to do with the expenditure on railways? The clause is so entirely foreign to the professed purpose of the Bill, that it seems to have been included by mistake. It reads as though it had been meant to form part of an amended Public Works Bill, and had found its way into tho State Forests Bill through some confusion of papers or seme blunder of a copying clerk.

But a little consideration makes the matter perfectly plain. To perceive the drift of the measure we must go back to 1870. Our readers will remember that it was part of Mr Vogel’s original scheme to throw a large part of the cost of the construction of railways upon the land. Besides direct payment in land to contractors, he proposed to set aside three and a-half million of acres for railway purposes—or, as it was termed, for a railway estate—the proceeds of which were to go towards reduction of the capital cost or yearly interest. He expected to derive considerable profit from this source. In his estimate of revenue and expenditure for the ten years over which the scheme was to run, he took credit for receipts from the railway estates of from £5,000 in the first year to £130,000 in the tenth; or in the whole, of £560,000. But this part of the scheme was never carried out. It was formally embodied in the Immigration and Public Works Act; but the powers conferred on the Government wore not exorcised, and the Act so far remained a dead letter. The only attempt to give effect to it was a feebly worded circular letter from Mr Gisborne, inviting the provinces to hand over land to tho General Government; an invitation which was refused with very scant ceremony by the Provincial Councils. So matters stood till the session of 1873. But by that time Mr Vogel had woke up to tho fact that his policy had threatened to prove a failure, and determined on using vigorous measures to enforce it. In his financial statement of 1873 he dealt with tho subject in his most trenchant stylo. Tho laud question,'he deblared, could not remain as it was. Tho lands were passing away in huge quantities, and the Government were bound to seo that some of it was set apart as security for railways. Ho laid it down as a cardinal principle, on which he was absolutely resolved, that not another yard of railway should bo authorized without security, in the form of landed estate, being given to the Colony. This plain speaking, however, brought a storm about his ears. The provinces which possessed landed estate were by no means willing to bo divested of it in tho way proposed. A meeting of members was held, including many of the staunchest supporters of the Government; and it was plainly intimated to Mr Vogel that ho must drop that part of his proposals, or take the consequences. Of course he preferred to drop it. Obedient to the wishes of the majority he agreed to retract his declaration. At the next sitting Mr Vogel had to announce that his views on tho land question had undergone modification, and that tho security required under the arrangements proposed in the budget would not be insisted on. We have entered thus fully into the above particulars on account of the light they throw on tho Bill under notice. When wo find that Mr Vogel has for the last three or four years been possessed with the idea of taking land as security for railways, we understand the connection in his mind between the railways and the forest land. The one naturally points to the other. The acquisition of land for forest purposes alone suggests the utilization of the land so acquired for the purposes of railways. And no doubt tho whole plan of forest conservation took fresh color and interest when he perceived how it might bo made to work the accomplishment of his other long-deferred and rejected project. For Mr Vogel's zeal in this direction is of very recent date. Till within the last six months he had never given the subject a thought. In 1868 Mr Stafford, in compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives, took a great deal of trouble to procure information respecting it; and when he went out of office in 1869 he left behind a valuable scries of reports and suggestions prepared, under the general direction of Dr Hector, by the Provincial authorities. But his successors made no use of them. The papers underwent a not uncommon fate; they were laid on the table, printed, pigeon-holed, and forgotten. Several members, especially Mr Potts and Mr O’Neill, tried hard to rouge the attention of the Government; but without avail. Even up to the end of last session they treated the matter as one, if not of indif ference, at all events of no particular urgency, The ardour with which Mr

Vogel has flung himself into the question, and his sudden discovery that it is more entitled to consideration than any question at the present time in New Zealand, are explicable only by supposing the existence of some other motive. What this motive was is evident from the form tho Bill has assumed. He is interested in tho question no doubt, on its own account; but far more so because he sees his way to making it subservient to his cherished project—the creation of a railway estate.

Thus the Bill is framed with a double intent. The primary object is, as its name implies, to provide for tho establishment and management' of State forests ; but beyond this is the further object of taking security for tho railways. Tho latter purpose is effectually attained. If the Bill becomes law, tho General Government will get possession of a very considerable amount of land in every province. In five years they will have acquired in the aggregate upwards of two millions of acres; or, 1,163,000 i.n the Middle Island, and about 900,000 in the North. In Canterbury they will take 260,000 acres. Whether tho provinces will approve of these extensive appropriations of land remains to be seen. Tree planting and the preservation of timber arc both desirable objects ; but when they have to bo purchased by the surrender of three per cent of tho land—not, it must be remembered, of tho land now available, but of the whole area of the province—wc think it not improbable that they may be considered too dear at the price.