The Hokitika Guardian TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4th. 1921. THE FORESTS BILL.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 October 1921, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4th. 1921. THE FORESTS BILL.

T'iik l i.irests liill as introduced to I’arlinmont is nut a very pretentious measure regarded superficially. In the main it is largely a consolidation of existing acts, and re-establishes the State Florest Service and its functions on lines previously enacted. The measure, however, is designed to captu-e control of th whole of the forests of

the Dominion, and it proposes to do as the new Department pleases by tie short and simple method of a proclamation as the governing authorities may be moved. The Cover '-General ''who acts at the request of lho Oovonime.nt) may set apart any lands vested in the Crown, and this will be done by a. simple Ordor-in-Council, the ellect of which the people will not know til' it is gazetted and is actually incorporated ill the law of the land. The forests o! the Dominion are thus going to he governed by Ordor-in-Council, and the people will not have any say :u the procedure at all unless they wale' up betimes and register their protest. D>cidntally the Government is tailing jKiwer to “collar” nil forests mi **»•- tional endowment land, and all •o-call-t»d “provisional" State forests bet oiue “j erma.nenl” forests in live years, ar.d the position then may he revoked only bv a resolution, not of “one" House, but of “both” Utilises of Parliament. Westland is sure to become a great forestry preservation not reservation! iVhat are- the millers, the sawmill em- | lovecs, the local bodies, lit I,'et all the general public who derive a heteTit from the sawmilling industry, going to do about this move to create a vast preservation for posterity? The oiuutry has suffered enough in the past through these deliberate acts of got i 1 n_ meiits in locking up the (ountry. Mint people will know lmu the Midland I-'ail. way reservation held up the progress of tlie district. That, however, was for a limited period. Here to-day the CrvernmenL is expending vast sums of money to give Westland arterial urnneetion with the rest lof Xew Zealand. and one of the chief commodities to pay for the construction of that railway and tlie clearing Pf which will leave more land for settlement, and so create a period of recurring pro-pvr-itv through pastoral pursuits, is, in the main, to he locked up. Industry will be stifled, and settlement will be retarded. and tlie great'impetus all have been looking forward to confidently will he still further postponed. A cruel wrong is to he done to this part of tlie Dominion by tlie stringent regulations of the Forestry Department, and the sooner the people are alive to the impending situation the better. Sir F. D. Be.ll has told us point blank that he is not) concerned about sawmilling in the district. He lias extravagant notions about timber for tlie rest of New Zealand for all time, not realising the vast resources of timber there are in Westland to day, nor the need to have this country ( petted up for settlement to help meet by both its natural industry and it-' increasing settlement the need of the rountry to-day in more production, more settlement, and a greater wealth producing community. We ask again what are the people going[ to doi about this impending disnster to Westland arid tlie Coast generally ? For how long are the millers going to remain impassive ?