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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5848, 27 December 1879, Page 2

In’ tho troublous days that seem to be coming to New Zealand, folks that have memory, and are capable of reflecting, will perhaps look back with keen regret to tho session of 1879, when Captain Campbell-Walker was in the colony, and Sir Julius Vogel hoped that he had really set afoot his Conservation of Forests scheme. The stupid obstinacy of some honest provincialists, and the crass folly of some pretended politicians, who constantly uttered falsehoods, or who believed bush to be nothing but an obstacle to settlement, and therefore calling for destruction, had in 1876 been so far triumphed over, that Captain Campbell-Walker was here, and did look round to see how best he could get the department to work. But Captain Walker liked horses, was fond of a bit of show, and did not feel constrained to regard each elected legislator as a born statesman or gentleman. He was not popular—-did not try to bo so ; and his unpopularity with soma members of the Assembly was by them made so potent a factor in tho question, that his fitness for his work was denied, and the uselessness of that work was asserted with all the ignorance and all the zeal necessary for success in New Zealand. There are amongst the few statesmen of the colony, some who recognised the high value of Sir Julius Vogel’s scheme, and who throughout tried to help him ; there are others who no less believed forest conservation to be likely to pay, and who did not doubt its importance as affecting climate and helping to avert floods, but who hated the propounder of the scheme, and would therefore not help him. The men of each of those classes would certainly be glad if the rough work of the Forests scheme were now completed, as it might have been ; for they would see in the fact an advance towards a permanent benefit to the colony as a place of living, and a probability of revenue, which we fear New Zealand will, for some time to come, much need. Wise well-wishers to the scheme must, however, wait. The bigots and the stupids amongst its opponents may not be made ashamed by proof of Captain Campbell-Walker’s special fitness to create a Forests Department; but none the less should the latest evidence of his fitness be made public in the colony. In “ The World ” for August 20, “Atlas” writes:—“The Indian Go- <! vornment has at last determined to “ appoint a qualified officer to superin- “ tend and develop its valuable Oin- “ cbona plantations in the Nilgherrie “ Hills, and has recommended that tho “ services of Captain Inches Campbell- “ Walker be utilised for this purpose. “ Captain Walker’s name is already “ well known in connection with the “ Forest Department of India, and only “ last year ho drew up a special report “ on this subject, 'which was very favor- “ ably received by tho Duke of Buok- “ ingham. He has now in the Press a “ valuable book on Forestry, based on “ his official reports in forest managa“mentin Germany, Austria, and Great “Britain, combined with those of New “ Zealand and the Cinchona district just “ referred to.”