The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1888. A Lost Rainfall.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 3043, 1 November 1888, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1888. A Lost Rainfall.

Tub /rainfall' in; •Mastor.tdn; for, tlio month of October aiubuhtetl to but > littlo moro than two inches, For this season of the year so light a downpour is very exceptional, and if the last month's record is to betaken as an indication of the humidity we i may expect during tho coining summer season, wo shall suffer somewhat 1 soriously. Already wo have had three dry summers iu Masterton, and if a fourth falls to our lot, we shall needaljttloof;the patjeuce pi Job, It does"uot follow,' that because Mastertqu has for some lime past been an almost rainless district that other parts of the colony will suffer a similar privation. Almost within sight of this town rain clouds iiro frequently doing their duty by watering the earth whon in this immediate neighborhood the ground . is dry as a bone. In the bush : districts to the north and on the hills : to the west there aro any nurabor of showers, and it is only in the plain which .surrounds the town that , prayers for rain are put forth. The cliinateofthisneighborhood.althotigh oxtreinely salubrious, is, we believe, less humid than it was in old tjuiea, The continuous plearing away of belts of bush which formerly envi roped tho town has • apparently affepted our rainfall to a marked degree, It is quite evident that wherever there is h large extent of bush in any part of tho Wabrapa there is a larger rainfall than in those sections of the district which havo been denuded of all growing timber. Had this difliculty been anticipated, it would have been easy to have met it by making forest reserves in various parts of the county to protect the rainfall, Now, of course, this is too late, and tho only availablo remedy is the formation of new plantations. Every settler on laud can do something towards restoring the lost rainfall jjy planting a'few trees,'and it jg inaijily {jtt thjs private enterprise of scttlprs iii'aj%ie'ulj,u(:e [bajifenjust rely if wo arc to retain the reputation for fertility which the soil of this ! district has enjoyed, h| t}|o pgs(, f ho (tovmnent'-cau do nothing jn the matter beyond reserving t|jp hush coverings of waste lands in tjie ranges which will preserve to us tho ines. -tiinablo. advantage of puKuunning

water ju our mcr coui«e c , Roscr rations of £lus cliaiactci ha\o beo'h mado.indtheiesultof them mil be beliohcial to tho community, Ou private settleis, howe'm, "will devol\o tho duty ot lcplanlmg tho distnot with suitable simile ticos. In some pails af Amouu, special encomagementis given towards tho growth of forest, because it is f&un'd that without plantations tliesurrounding clear'' ings becomes less productive, so' that a man; say) with twenty acres [of clearedjand,. and ten pfbush, ; is belter off than another man in a different locality who has thirty acres of treeless land. Shelter and shade trees are as valuable to the farmer and to the gardener irf Now Zealand, ns'thb'y arc to tlie enterprising settler in Vthe States.