The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) Suivant la verite. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1883. FOREST CONSERVATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 259, 5 October 1883, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) Suivant la verite. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1883. FOREST CONSERVATION.

LAST session saw no steps taken with regard to forest conservation, a fact which will be generally deplored. The ! opinion seems to be adopted that our forests will last for ever. Verily, tlie t assumption is fallacious to a degree. Day by day our requirements for the raw material are increasing, and day by day the supply is being exhausted with no means for its restoration. As settlement increases, so timber must continue to be m greater demand, and some day we will awaken to the fact that our vast wealth of forest is at an end. New Zealand ports should m course of time do an extensive: business m supplying vessels for intercolonial traffic, and the day should not Ibe.far off when ocean-going ships ofi large tonnage will be launched from; New Zealand yards. As thei, Auckland Herald points out, m an article referring to the necessity for forest conservation; and to the certainty that m the course of time New Zealand m dustries must' flag for lack of timber : — "It is well to look to it betimes, for timber will yet be scarce and dear m the world's markets, and we have now the opportunity of preserving a store to meet our prospective requirements. If we had State forests really saved from devastation, they would stand by our necessities through the coming time. But these State forests are only marked off on paper, and are ravaged like the rest of the woods, by axe and fir'es'tick, and often the mere pipelight of a careless wanderer. The woods are disappearing from New Zealand by reason of the needs of settlement, and also by uncalled-for, wanton destruction, and-now-a-days, too, by the large export of the timber to the great Australian cities which having used up their own forests and those of Tasmania, now lo< k to other quarters for the supply. As .the main exporter of this article, ; North New : Zealand now stands m the same relation to Australia as Canada does to the United States arid Europe. It, of course, brings much present profit — this timber trade ; and if we were discreet enough to have a provision for the fature, which should nob be used j up m the present, all would be well. But no such provision is made, and as the case is, we are burning the candle at both ends — are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs."