The Daily News FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1903. FOREST CONSERVATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 13, 16 January 1903, Page 2

The Daily News FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1903. FOREST CONSERVATION.

Thb question of consarving the v.<lu able timber in the remaining forest areas, is attracting considerable attention It is gr dually coming heme to every one that one of the mest valuable assets of the olor.y is b-iog wasted in a most reckless and sinful manner. Statesmen, aoii some of the Land Boards, havd real's'd that fomething should bedone, but the difficulty has been to find a remedy. Settlers taking up bash land have had to destroy most valuable limber to comply with their improvement conditions, and to get grafs for their stock. The great trouble settlers have had to contend with isgettirg the limbir out. Sawmill*is will not eiect mil's till there are roads ovt r which t hey c<n cart the timber, and the settler cannot, for the same teason, get the timber out if be cuts it himself. We are firmly convinced that the American sysem of light tram line'p, if adopted in this colony, would bo of incalculable benefit, aud en ible large areas to be opened up tooncrand more cheaply than by the ordinary roads, which take, even under tin most favourable conditions, a lo> g time ti make, and are very c _ s ly. Roads, whether tram, or, as the Americans call them, plank rotds, or metal lo', are le lly the Alpha and Omega of the prospaiity and advancement of the colony. Mr Hogg, the member for Masterton, who is often spoken of as a probable Minister of Lands, and who is aUo a member of the Wellington L nd JfJoarl has strong convictions on the subject, atd Lis views will, we thirk, be heirily endorsed by many sottlers i<) tbe Turacaki bush district-. In ta'kiog over the matter with an Evening I'ast reporter, Mr Dogg mr ntiuned that the policy of selling timb sred country in this part of tbe No th I-land before either railway or good roads were constructed has been a very disastrous one. In many places tbe crop of timber which has been ruthlessly destroyed is undoubtedly the most valuable crop tbe land will ever bear. Some few holders of tectiois (near the totara block at EjEetdhuaa jhave obtained at much as £SOO nnd j .£IOOO from the sawmillers for the pri- : vilege of cutting the timber on their ] small section?. Mr Hogg went on to rmark that in Upper Wanganui district near the township of Raetilr, there is a splendid block of heavily, timbered country known as the Waimarino. Some ten or eleven years ago, whan special settlements were- being formed all over the Wellington pro'vir.ee, associations of workers from the viriom centres applitd for spe M eetlement blocks. Some of them wore sran ed areas of from 5000 to 10,000 teres in this Waimarino districr, The blocks were surveyed generally into sections of about 200 acres each, After all the trouble and expense of survey hid been undertaken, when the people who had applied for the land inspeced V, they found the difficulties on accouat of the heavy timber so formidable (hat they abandoned their enterprise. The chief suffsrer from this waß the Crown betause virtually no deposit wes required from the associations, and the Crows was put to considerable expense for surveying. For noma year* thi» land remaiced open for settlement purposes, but 1 , fortunately for tbe color.y, it vas not selected. The fine maire to'arc, and other kinds of timber were of Hich a hfiivy character that it was virtually impcssible, when trees w. re felled, to get stock through the fallen srd charred timber. These blocks are now in the possession of the Crowe, and if the Land Boatd had o'one as ihas constantly been asked to do of In e yen's, settlers would gradually have token up the land—not for cultivation, but with a view to make a splendid harvest when the railway proceeds so far, and the sawmillers follow the iron horer. This block will be ore of the< most valuable ats«ts of tLe Crown in tha* part of the colony, and it will piy f,r i very inch of the ra'lwoy line bo-twe-n Taihape and Taumaranui. The land i's If is of first-class quality, aud th< re is likely to be employment for thousands of sawrxill bands in that te'ghbourhood for mar.y years to come,

Mr Hogg is firmly of the opinion that before land is thrown open for selection! arterial roads should be formed, and ' the ssttlers should be employ«d to form , the roads to thesections. This would enible the settlers to see the lands for which they are competing, instead of goiog into the bueb blindfolded as they are daing now. It is same consolation ta know that, according to Mr Hogg, the Wellington Land Board is aliva to i 8 resp nsibilities, and is taking strin-g.-nt steps to bring about a state of things which will afford some protecithn to the colony in regad to the [conservation of one of Ks most valuable 1 assets.