The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5374, 18 June 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 1878.

In 1874 Sir Julius Vogel, with that ardor which distinguishes all his public undertakings, collected and presented to Parliament a series of papers on the subject of Forestry which made a complete compendium of forest literature. An Act was passed in that year which enabled the Government to take the initiative stops for establishing a state forests department ; it provided for the appropriation of the sum of £IO,OOO a year, for a period of thirty years, for the purposes of the Act; and it enabled the Governor in Council to make regulations for the management of the forests. Shortly afterwards, the services of Captain Campbell-Walker, from the Indian (forest Department,were obtained. After a long and painstaking enquiry, and after having personally visited the several forest districts of these islands, Captain Walker’s report was furnished to the Government and presented to the General Assembly. It will be found printed in the appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives for the year 1877. It has been said that the opposition which was offered to the passing of the State Forests Act on tho part of some of the representatives of Provincial Governments in the Assembly was the cause of tho movement which was immediately made for tho abolition of the provincial form of government in the North Island; but this, we think, is a mistake. Tho House and the country had already practically resolved that the time had come for a change, and, by pressure from within the Cabinet as well as by pressure from members supporters of the Government without it, tho Premier was forced to lead the way, and tho now famous abolition resolution was proposed and carried. It may be owing to the fact that the StateForestsAot, by being thus associated with the idea of abolition, acquired the character, undeservedly, of a party measure, that it has remained upon the statute book inoperative up to this time. In 1870 a repealing Act was passed by the House of Representatives, but rejected in tho Legislative Council, and, in the same year, by the Appropriation Act, tho money, £IO,OOO, sat apart for the purposes of State Forestry, was restored to the Consolidated Fund. In all other respects tho Act of 1874 has remained untouched. In the Land Act introduced by the late Government the forests were practically placed in charge of the Waste Lands Boards of the several land districts,

the time not having yet arrived, apparently, when a true view of the value of the forests as a national estate can be taken, and their care and management be regarded as one of the most important of colonial interests. That time is not, however, we think, far distant; it will be indicated practically in; the enhanced price of wood for building and railway purposes, as well as for fencing and firewood, arising out of the enormously increased and still growing demand for timber for home consumption as well as for exportation, and by the necessity of going year by year further afield in order to obtain supplies. As usual, then, when it is a little too late, we shall begin vigorously to make reparation for the long neglect of our obvious duties in this respect,—duties owing as well to ourselves as to those who come after us, and to whom we shall leave a heavy legacy of debts, with an estate, in forest land at least, of greatly diminished value.

In the Parliamentary papers presented in 1874 the area of the forest land in New Zealand was estimated to have been in the year 1830 over twenty millions of acres ; in 1868 it had. diminished to fifteen million two hundred and ninetysix thousand acres ; in 1873 the estimate was twelve millions one hundred and thirty thousand acres. In a return furnished by the Survey Department in August last, showing the quantities of Crown land remaining undisposed of in the several counties, the area of forest was put down as six million one hundred and three thousand acres only. Captain Campbell-Walker thinks that the early estimates made by Dr. Hector were greatly under the mark; they will at any rate show, when regarded in connection with the latest return, a rapid and enormous decrease in the extent of the Crown Forests, and that in the face of a necessarily increasing demand for the forest produce. Failing any direct action by the State, much may now be effected by private enterprise directed to tree-planting on a large scale, in the way of adding to the beauty of the country, improving the climate, and at the same time securing the material advantages which cultivation of trees holds out. With the view to encourage enterprise of that kind an Act was passed in the year 1871, called the “Forest TreePlanting Encouragement Act,” which provided that upon compliance with certain prescribed conditions a free grant of two acres of land should bo . given for every acre planted with trees : not less than twenty, or more than two hundred and fifty acres to be taken by one person. In 1872 an amending Act was passed, which provided that a land order, not exceeding the value of £4, might be issued for each acre planted with trees ; and it provided further that the operation of the law, which in the first instance was limited to Canterbury and Otago, might bo extended to all the provinces. We reprint from the “New Zealand Gazette,” No. 12, of date February 22, 1877, the regulations made by the Governor in Council under the authority of the Acts above quoted, and which we believe are still in force :

(1.) The planting in respect of which a grant of land 'under the Act is claimed need not bo in one block, but may be in several blocks on the same property. (2.) The land planted must be securely fenced, and must have been devoted to planting for at least two years. (3 ) The trees must be in a vigorous and healthy state when the grant of land is applied for. (4.) The trees may bo of any description, and the number plontod mast be at the rate of not less than 590 per acre. (5). The trees must bo of an average height ot 2ft,, except in the case ot gum, wattle, poplar, or willow, which must be of an average height of 4ft. (0). As' soon ns the land is fenced and the trees planted, a report must he sent to the Commissioner for Crown Lauds for the provincial district in which the lands aro situate, who will cause inspection of the same to bo made, from the date of which, if duly certified, the two years will be calculated. (7) The amount of the land order to bo issued under authority of section 4 of the Forest Trees Planting Encouragement Act Amendment Act, 1872, in respect of every acre of land planted shall ho £4. (8) The falfllment of the, conditions above proscribed shall be ascertained, and shall bo certified in tlio form annexed, by an officer appointed by the Governor, who shall forward the same to the Secretary for Crown Lands. Upon the receipt of such certificate the Governor may either issue his own certificate to the Waste Lands Board, or he may. if he think fit, cause further inquiry to be made into the facts of the case.

(0). No person shall be entitled to receive a land order under the Forest Trees Planting Encouragement Act Amendment Act, 1872, unless ho shall at the time he makes a claim therefor produce to, and deposit with, the Commissioner ot Crown Lands for the provincial district in which the lands are situate, a plan of the land planted with trees in respect of which ho claims such land order, showing the marks or numbers by which such land is known on tho record maps in the Crown Lands Office of tho lands district. The applicant shall also produce and leave with such officer a statutory dgplaration made by him that, to tha best of his belief, tho boundaries and dimensions of such land are correctly delineated on such plan, and that no land order has been previously granted to any person in respect of tho planting the land described in such plan with trees.

roast or ceutificate, I, A. 8., do hereby certify, after personal inspections of plantation made by C.D., that acres of land have been planted by Mmi in accordance with the statements contained in tho application of 1872; that the conditions imposed under the regulations issued under the Forest Trees Planting Encouragement Act, 1871, have been faithfully complied with, and that lie is entitled, under tho provisions of the said Act, to receive a land order to the amount of —— pounds,— Foil step. Gokiho, Clerk of tho Executive Council.

Seeing that the pecuniary return from judicious forest planting is large and assured, although necessarily distant in time, we think that tha encouragement offered by these liberal regulations ought to be sufficient to induce landed proprietors to embark in that business. lu doing so they would have the satisfaction of feeling that whilst in regard to their particular interests they wore acting not imprudently, they wore at the same time rendering a service to tho colony. It is probable that tho existence of this law and of these regulations is not generally known, otherwise it would be a remarkable fact, as shown by a recent official return, that not more than fifteen hundred acres of land in all have been taken up with land orders issued under their authority.