New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 1877.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5110, 9 August 1877, Page 2

New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 1877.

The report of Captain. Campbell-Waik'er on the “ Conservation of State Forests,” recently laid on the table of the House, deserves more than/a passing notice. The report is exhaustive, and far too compendious to be-even touched upon in its various parts in a single article. Bound with it are too well executed maps,‘one of the North the other of the South Island, in which are shown the localities where the most important of our forest trees are found in the greatest abundance. Of these the districts of Auckland, Hawke’s Bay, Wellington, and Westland stand out most conspicuously. In addition to wnich there are Banks Peninsula and many other detached portions of the South Island, where valuable timber forests of greater or less importance are to be found; On the other hand, the Province of Canterbury are singularly hare of trees/; Throughout their vast extent' only a few. forests worthy of the name are. to be found ; and these have been subjeoted to the ruthless axe of the woodman to such a degree as to be almost; denuded of all timber of value; and should this state'of things be permitted to continue, a few more years will suffice to bring about their utter destruction. On this point Captain Walker has expressed himself in words of wisdom; words which should commend themselves, not to the people of Canterbury only, but to .all the inhabitants Of these' islands; words which should commend themselves to all true patriots who desire ' to hand down to succeeding generations the : glorious legacy, which nature has bequeathed to us, undeteriorated and undefiled. His words are as follow : —‘■l” ain astonished at the reckless, and improvident manner in which the timber lands have been managed, and it is no wonder that the Forest Department has derived no benefit from the sales effected, as it would appear that the timber, the growth of ages; had been considered and treated as an, incumbrance on ,thp land rather, than a source of weilltH, and invariably sold along with the land, apparently without a thought given to the value of the crop or the future necessities of the province, at the nominal price of £2 an acre. Perhaps this is the reason that there exists so much senseless waste in its removal; and if the present system of wholesale decimation; is persisted in,' the existing generation will see all the available timber in Canterbury cleared put.” . . There is no doubt that other districts have suffered in a similar manner, the only difference being that the population has been less numerous than that of Canterbury, and the timber forests more ex-, tensive. ; But it must not, bo forgotten that population is rapidly increasing in New Zealand, and extending its ramifications to localities hitherto uninhabited by Europeans;’ and if measures' are riot speedily adopted to prevent their wholesale denudation; then their'total destruction will, be only a, thing . of time. This could easily be done by passing a law- to .regulate the felling . of timber within certain given areas, and making it illegal to fell a tree under a certaip size. It is worthy of . remark that no serious damage, viewing the colony as a whole, has as yet been done ; on this the testi'mPn'y'‘ l of Captaiii 1 is happily clear and decisive. It Is therefore only, necessary _to prevent, by legal eriaotirients,' the 1 possibility of further destruction. Should it be objected that we are attaching too much im-.,

portance to this subject, and that our fears of the. total destruction qf our forests are not likely to be realised, we~ to refer to the cases of Francej’lreland, the sputli of -Sp'aiij, and India,- to show that suchj a result'is not. only provable, but will inevitably; ensue,; if measures are not taken to prevent it. \ , The most valuable -of’'our' timber trees are the kauri, totara, and red pine. A reference to the maps .which accompany the report' will show that these truly valuable trees -are extensively diffused in dense forests throughout the North Island, and in the South Island in the parts already ; indicated. Captain Camp-bell-Walker justly remarks that these constitute a source of national wealth, the importance of which cannot ;be over-estimated, and it only needs the enactment of. wise and yet liberal forest laws to make it permanent. There are two ,aspects ;in : which the utility of forests may be viewed,-namely, their actual value in a mercantile point of view, as supplying timber for the multifarious ■requirements consequent upon a state of civilisation, and the indirect advantage we derive from them by reason of their influence upon the climate. Under the first head we have , the quantity required for home consumption and the demands made, upon it for .export, i ;The; cities ! of Auckland and Dunedin together consume over 500,000 tons of firewood annually. The requirements of the Railway Department for the next twelve .or thirteen years will probably amount to not less than 35,000 cubic feet per annum, to say nothing of the enormous quantity used annually for - building and other mechanical purposes; which it is almost impossible to estimate. Then we have our export trade. In 1875 we exported timber to the value of £178,714. No doubt this trade will ibe largely increased when ' the value of our timber becomes better known. These figures are quoted by Captain Walker more at .length in his. report, from which we have extracted the foregoing.

On the climatic influence of forests the report is equally clear. But we have not space in a single article to enter upon this part of the subject. Suffice it to say Captain Walker is of opinion that no damage has yet been done in any part' of the colony, with the single exception of Canterbury. The proposals for the organisation of a Forest Department are worthy of consideration.; The report shows that this' can be made self-supporting after the first five years. There ean be no doubt that'if such a staff were organised for regulating existing forests and planting others where' required, it would be of important service to the country, and the expenditure of a few thousand pounds in this direction would soon be repaid with interest. Considerable attention has been paid in most civilised countries of late years to the preservation of existing forests and planting new ones. The. damage done by the ignorance of preceding generations is being slowly ' blit" surely repaired. Districts formerly fertile, but since reduced, to barren wastes, are resuming their wonted luxuriance^;.and a few years hence will see devastation (caused by man’s ignorance or selfishness) repaired, and the effects of jthis ruthless treatment (of NatureVbbuntiesobliterated. 5