NEW ZEALAND, TAKE WARNING.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 319, 23 March 1878, Page 10

NEW ZEALAND, TAKE WARNING.

The following is a paragraph from a report lately rendered to the American Congress:— The rapidity with which this counti-y is being- stripped of its forests must alarm every thinking man. It has been estimated by good authority that if we go ou at the px-eseut rate the supply of timber in the United States will, in less than twenty years, fall considerably short of our home necessities. How disastx-ously the destx-uction of the forest of a couuti-y affects the regularity of the water-supply iu its rivers necessaxy for navigation, increases the frequency of freshets and inundations, dries up springs, and transforms fertile agx-icultural disti-icts into bai-ren wastes, is a matter of univei-sal experience the world ovex-. It is high time that we should turn our eai-nest attention to this subject, which so seriously concei-ns our national prosperity. A comparatively small number of our watchful and enei-getic agents will suffice to prevent, in future, not indeed the stealing of single trees here aud there, but at least depredations on a large scale. To avert such evil effects of denuding the mountains of trees, I would suggest the following preventive and remedial measures : All timber lands still belonging to the United States should be withdrawn from the operations of the preemption and homestead laws, as well as the location of the various kinds of sci-ip. Timber lands fit for agricultural purposes should be sold, if sold at all, only for cash, and so graded in price as to make the purchases pay for the value of the timber on the land. This will be apt to make the settler careful and provident in the disposition he makes of the timber. A sufficient number of Government agents should be provided for to protect the timber on public lands from depredations, and to institute to this end the necessary proceedings against depredators by seizure and by criminal as well as civil action. Such agents should also be authorised and instructed, under the direction of the Department of the Interior or the Department of Agriculture, to sell for the United States, in order to satisfy current local demand, timber from the public land under proper regulations ; and in doing so, especially to see to it that no large areas be entirely stripped of their timber, so as not to prevent the natural renewal of the forest. This measure would enable the people of the mining States and territories to obtain the timber they need in a legal way; at the same time avoiding the dangerous consequences above pointed out.