Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 379, 5 August 1874, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

We have had^rwarded to us a copy of the Premier's or rather dissertation on forestry, in moving the secnnd reading of his Bill for the conservation of New Zealand forests. The .document is an able and comprehensive resume of all the advantages a country enjoys from its plantations. If, a3 Samuel Johnston observed, lie is a benefactor who • makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, he must be a benefactor doubly meritorious who will succeed in raising a forest of trees over the treeless wildernesses of our Middle Island ; and Mr. Yogel himself "fill merit the crown of a benefactor if by any means the insensate waste of our forests can be arrested, and- all the beneficial advantages enjoyed by the well-timbered portions of our colonial home is continued to us. We feel persuaded it is high time that something was d.one, " The destruction

of our forests is going on at a fearful rate. Only last summer, away over in the direction of the Pomahaka, a fire was blazing away for weeks in the bush, the smoke rising like a cloud by day, and the flames throwing a lurid glare against the sky at night. The senseless waste of forest land from fire more than from lawful consumption is found everywhere, and it is certainly time that something was done to [arrest the evil. Dr. Hector has supplied approximate calculations of this waste in the respective Provinces in 1830, 1868, and 1873 :— " Between 1830 aud 1868 the destruction of foi'ests amounted to, in Auckland, 58 per cent. ; Taranaki, 10 per cent. ; Wellington, 20 per cent. ; Hawke's Bay, 60 per cent. ; Nelson, 16 per cent. ; Maryborough, 12 per cent. ; Canterbury, 10 per cent. ; Westland, 5 per cent. ; and Otago, 12 per cent. ;— the average destruction over the Colony being about 25 per cent. During the five years 1868 to 1873 . . . . . . taking the whole colony, 20 per cent, more of what forest we had in 1868 had been destroyed." The Premier adds that whether these figures be trustworthy or not, they are most suggestively confirmatory of what we all know, that in all parts of the Colony the destruction of standing timber is progressing at a most alarming rate. The Premier has shown that in Upper Egypt, in Mauritius, in England, and in many districts of the West India Islands, and we remember seeing a similar statement in regard to the interior of Sooth Africa many years ago, that the rainfall has almost ceased in consequence of the destruction of the timber. In other districts, such as Alexandra and Cairo, genial showers have been wooed back in consequence of . the planting of trees. Besides their effect on the rainfall, "Their existence is of incalculable benefit to the countries that possess them, as well as in the protection and feeding of the springs and rivers as in their prevention of the washing away of the soil upon the mountains, and in the beneficial and healthy influence they exert on the atmosphere. Large forests deaden and break the force of heavy winds that beat out the seed and injure the growth of plants ; they form reservoirs for moisture ; they shelter the soil of fields and upon hill sides, and check the. rain waters, so that they find their way more gradually to the river channels, and have an appreciable effect on inundations," &c. They have been proved to affect the climate for the production of the finer fruits. In the United States the cuKivation of peaches has been fairly pushed by change of climate across Mason and Dixon's Line into the Southern States, and all through the felling of the forests. But space fails us to enumerate all the advantages that surround our forests. So many and so great are they, that Mr. Yogel proposes to take them under the protection of ,the State, and provide for the continuance of forests as well as for the disposal of the ripened timber. The Provinces, however, are mainly against him. It will take away from them those powers which spendthrifts are well known in all times to have prized, no matter though future generalions be robbed. A forest on an estate has come in very conveniently to meet the difficulties which wasteful expenditure is sure to incur. For no other reason do we believe is it that the Provinces stand in the way of this much needed measure. Let us hope, however, that the House will rise above such petty considerations, and pass the measure. We ought to use rationally what an all- wise Providence has kept in reserve, not for this generation to waste, but for generations to come to use.