The Standard AND PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.) WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1876.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 426, 8 November 1876, Page 2

The Standard AND PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.)

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1876.

“ Wc shall sell to no man justice or right: We shall deny to no mail justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right.”

When we say that the “ devil is not “ as black as he’s painted ” —to use a somewhat vulgar, but forcible, expression ; and at the same time record our opinion that the wisdom of the House of Representatives in reference to the Forests Act, is open to question—we do not, for a moment, intend to institute a comparison between that ancient gentleman and Sir Julius Vogel, the progenitor of the Act to which we desire now to draw attention. In a letter to the Wellington Argus, he thus expresses his regret at the prospect of its repeal: —-

“ It is with consternation I observe the indication of a desire to repeal this Act. I’he experience of the world is against it. State forests are the most cherished institutions of the countries that possess them. I need only refer as examples among others to Sweden, Germany, France, Russia, Prussia, Austria, India, and latest but not least interesting or important, South Australia. On the other hand, consider the laments over neglected forestry. What would France be but for the vigorous cultivation of its forests during the last few years ? A recent writer in the Edinburgh Review thus expresses himself :— “ Babylon, Nineveh, Thebes, Memphis, and Carthage, now waste and even pestilential, were formerly the very hives of human life. The remains of conduits, canals, cisterns, and pools throughout Palestine, and especially through the now desert country east of the Jordan, are such as to explain the accounts on record of the former population of these regions. So thorough has been not only the change of the climate, but the denudation of soil caused by the cutting down the olives, the palms, and other trees of Palestine during the Roman war, that it would be impossible to attach any credit to the most venerable accounts of the former fertility, beauty, and population of the Holy Land (its brooks and fountains gushing out of valleys and hills being now replaced by barren and solid rock), without the knowledge we have acquired of the fatal effects of the destruction of timber.

“ Notwithstanding all that man has done for North America, it is to be doubted whether that Continent has anything like the intrinsic value it possessed when die coloured man alone roamed through its vast forests now so frightfully destroyed. There is, I believe, a wide spread feeling of consternation io the United States at the manner in which this great question has hitherto been neglected.

“ It seems to me that whilst we arc striving so hard to advance the interests of the present generation in New Zealand, it is wise and graceful to remember those who come after us. No public works can atone for desolated forests. The plains of Canterbury may be covered with railways in less than the interval from youth to manhood of a single life. But it would take two generations to grace those plains with matured forests. Lot us suppose the period bridged over. What would the public debt for railways matter if there were the forests to be valued by millions to be set against it? This is but aninstance of many. TheadoptionofaStateforest system in New Zealand means not only wealth, but health, happiness, climate, a thousand enjoyments and resources otherwise unknown—■ it means, in short, all the difference between improving the country or allowing it to become less valuable and less excellent than when we found it in the sole possession of the native race.

“ Regarding what you say of the inaction of Captain Walker, an explanation may not be out of place. Captain Walker has come to New Zealand for twelve months, at the end of which time both the Government and he are each at liberty to make, or refuse to make, a longer engagement. ‘‘Captain Walker would have been quite willing to at once organise the management of the forests, and to have fully occupied his time. But it was deemed better to delay doing anything of the kind, until he had seen all the forests, and the country, reported on them, and indicated the plans he proposed for the future. The subject was too important to deal with hastily. Under this arrangement, Captain ‘Walker considered it better to be idle during the winter months. He has made arrangements -by which be counts on being able to fully report on the forests of the country, and to recommend the system he proposes for the future within the time of his stay here. Upon the Government would depend whether or not his plans were accepted and his stay extended. Whatever the decision under this head, I do not think it touches the question of a provision for the country, which will be hailed by millions long after Captain Walker and those who praise or blame him have gone to their long rest.”

All who have thought seriously over the matter must have agreed with the spirit of the means employed

by the ex-premier in his legislative action to conserve and perpetuate the forests of the colony, although they may differ as to the means themselves One of the most unrelishable items connected with the project, was the introduction of a certain “ Captain “ Walker,” a friend of some one’s friend, for whom it was intended to provide, at a salary big enough to maintain three or four families, in comparative affluence, for the purpose of “ being idle during the winter “ months,” while his fertile brain was concocting a scheme which would “in- “ dicate the plans he proposed for the “ future.” Considering the temper of the House at the fag end of the Session, when some of the most important work was yet before it ; and; considering that Sir Julius Vogel most shamefully abandoned every principle of statesmanship, by relinquishing his high command, for the official fleshpots in the Agent General’s office, it is hardly to be wondered that his opponents took courage at his change of position, and attacked him in flank, front, and rear, as opportunity offered. This much is to be regretted ; for, there cannot be two opinions that the principle contained in the Forests Act, by which the conservation of the timber of the country could be effected, is one of a most valuable, and —hygienically considered —important character. And, granting this, it is a pity that the House did not rise superior to the occasion, in which it was tempted to “ cut its “ nose off, to spite its face,” for this is what it has figuratively done, and, indeed, so literally too, as to make its action a most regretful affair. It was not so much to do away with the Forests Act that the House refused to vote Captain Walker’s salary, as to spite Sir Julius Vogel through his triend and protege. But, we care little for either one or the other now. Still, however bad, or good, a man may be, his actions live after him ; he makes “foot prints in the sands of “ Time,” which serve as land marks either to follow or avoid, in the journeyings, and experiences of life. What we desire now is to learn a practical lesson from the teachings of our anything but perfect monitors. If there be no legislative provision made by which the timber growing necessities of the colony can be ensured ; if we are not compelled by Act of Parliament to spare a tree here, and plant a seed there ; we, as colonists, have a sufficiency of good sense to know that tree planting, on as an extensive scale as our means, individually and collectively employed, will allow, is a question fraught with the mOst important results both to us and to our posterity. Whatever Sir Julius Vogel’s faults may be (and, goodness knows, the settlers of Poverty Bay have nothing to thank him for) he is, in some respects, a philantropist, and sufficiently so to make us inclined to, almost, forgive him, in remembrance of what he has done, for what he has left undone. To the dispassionate, and unprejudiced, every word contained in our extract from Sir Julius Vogel’s letter to the Argus, contains a truth that cannot be contradicted. There is wisdom in every syllable, if we would but see it; and it is our earnest wish, as it must be that of every one having the interests of this district at heart, that, amongst the manifold duties devolving upon us, we should not lose sight of the all-important one of tree planting, by which we, as well as those coming after us, to fill our places, shall be benefitted.