Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News WASTE OF NATURAL RESOURCES.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4448, 12 August 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News

WASTE OF NATURAL RESOURCES.

This above all—to thine oion self he true , \nd it must follow ae the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 1909.

The waste of natural resources is now attracting the attention of the civilised world. The late Professor Deras, who long |held the chain of political economy in University of Dublin, and contributed to the Stonyhurst Philosophical series a volume on that subject, was one of the very first to point out the great waste by the nations of their natural resources. The late Premier, Mr Seddon, also realised the significance of this subject, and we received a letter from him before hig death thanking us for our services in calling attention to the wilful destruction of the kauri forest in Northern New Zealand-

Since then legislation has put a stop to the butchering of the Kauri by reckless gumdiggers and others M/hP wantonly destroyed that valuable natural resource-

As nur fcauri gum gets exhausted we must prepare for the proper utilising of the gum lands, frp.e planting has been tried on a small scale, but it must be taken in band more seriously and on a vaster scale if it is to become a movement ct national value. It is true we must not despise the day of small things ; but our Arbor Day, in wbich we en courage children in public schools to plant trees, must receive more attention.

We have taken kauri gum out of our lands which proved to be an asset worth many millions of pounds sterling, and the gum fields were of immense benefit to thousands of gumdiggers in dull times. But in consuming the gum we were exhausting our capital. Numbers of small farmers were enabled to hold on to their farms in times of depression in trade, and were finally enabled to acquire the freehold and extinguish mortgages, because of the help they got from proceeds of gum digging. The pity is that so much of the gum has been abstracted by Austrians who do not settle in New Zealand as a permanent home. Of late, special attention has been paid to the waste of our natural resources such as timber, fish, coal, and gold. It is thought tfiey might be made a better national asget. The United States Government has effectively moved in the matter of waste of natural resources generally, and has secured the consent of all the principal and many of the smaller nations for holding of a World Conference on the of those resources. It. is sqcpgnised that “ wilful waste brings wqtfu). want” in national as well as ini private family Jife. Canada has pledged herself to with the United States, and leaefr pf the forty-five nations that pariicjpated in the last Hague Conference been invited to join this World Conference.

One of the principal Journals in the United States says ; u Secretary Bacon, who is now at the head of the State Department, suggests that at that conference

plan for an inventory of the world’s resources might be formulated, and | then all the countries would know . how they stood in regard to such commodities as wood, coal, oil, water, * game, and many other necessaries. With such a world inventory, the Secretary says, the various producing countries of tho world would be in a better position to co-operate, each for its own good and all for the good of all, towards the safeguarding and the betterment of their common means of support. The people of every country are interested in the supply of food and of material for manufactures in every other country, not only because these are interchangeable through processes of trade, but because a knowledge of the total supply is necessary to each nation’s share of the supply. Nor, the Secretary continues, is this all. A knowledge of the continuance and stability of perennial and renewable resources is no less important to the world than a knowledge of the quantity or the term remaining for the enjoyment of those resources which when consumed are irreplaceable, and as to all the great natural sources of national welfare, the peoples of today hold the earth in trust for those who come after them,” We hope that New Zealand will be adequately represented at that Con • ference- The widespread interest in this question is ian evidence of the serious waste of natural resources that prevails throughout the world. It is not a mere local question, but one of world-wide importance.