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Mr. Prouse's Paper. Mr. Prouse (Wellington) read the following paper on " The Preservation and Utilisation of our Forests." Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, —Having acceded to your request to prepare a paper upon the preservation and utilisation of our forests, I will, to the best of my ability, with the short time at my disposal, endeavour to place before you my views upon this most important question. Briefly reviewing the past, I find that the valuable natural resources of our forests have never received that attention and protection from past Governments that they were entitled to ; laws have been framed for their destruction, not intentionally, perhaps, but that was the result, and a solid source of wealth has been sacrificed in many cases for a fictitious one. I am sure that most of us could supply instances which have come under our observation where men have expended a large amount of, and sometimes all, their capital in destroying valuable timber, with the hope of making a home ; but, instead, have brought ruin upon themselves and their families, while the timber, if left growing upon the land, would now be bringing in a very large return in the shape of royalties. Millers would be only too glad to have the opportunity to remove the greater part of the timber which entailed so much labour, expense and loss upon the settler in the past; and if this phase of the question were searchingly inquired into it could be clearly proved that in the regulations and conditions laid upon settlers by past Governments, they (the settlers) have entered into contracts, by and with the concurrence of the Government of the day, to destroy a harvest the most valuable the land would ever produce. In many cases the crop of timber was of considerably more value than the land itself, hut in the eagerness to place settlers upon the land this valuable product has been sacrificed, and the settler has not been benefited. It will also have been impressed upon you that, while other industries have been specially fostered by bonuses and grants, grants to aid in the discovery of new processes, or open up new fields to increase the quantity and quality of those products, I do not think any aid has been given to foster this industry—one of the most valuable in our colony. The present Government certainly employed an -expert, and, by so doing, show they have a desire to encourage this industry ; and also, by express desire of the Premier, we are asked to confer together in this Conference— we who have embarked upon, and are interested in, this industry—to furnish a report to the Government of what we believe to be the best means to encourage, protect, and derive from our forests the greatest good for the greatest number. There is another side to this question we must not lose sight of—namely, the effect upon the climate by the denudation of timber from large tracts of country ; and there appears to be a prevalent idea, though an erroneous one, that the encouragement of timber-milling is tantamount to encouraging the destruction of our forests, the disarrangement of the atmospheric balance, and the fruitful cause of droughts, floods, and more or less dreadful catastrophes; but it only requires a little information to disperse these gloomy fears. If it were more widely known that timber-millers as a class are the staunchest protectors of our forests; that, while they remove from such forests the milling-timber growing thereon, they do not touch the greater number of trees, which, because of their size, either being too large or too small, or from defects of shape or otherwise, or because they belong to a class of timber that does not command a market, these trees are left to grow and flourish. The timber-miller culls the forests; he does not destroy them ; his interest lies in a totally different direction. And the indication given to this Conference in this direction by the Premier, and further suggestions which will be made in this paper, should go a long way in disabusing people's minds on this subject; and we should not hear again a statement to the effect that the timber industry did not require fostering, as it was a source of danger to a district, after this Conference has finished its labours and its report is printed and circulated. Within the short limits of this paper, I think I have now devoted sufficient attention to the mistakes of the past; and, therefore, shall now turn my attention to formulating what, in my opinion, is a practicable scheme for the preservation of our forests, or what remains of them. I assure you it was with pain I heard a gentleman in this Conference state that, in his opinion, some of the gentlemen present at this Conference would live to see the last of the noble kauri pine, and that the kauri as a tree was marching to extinction in the wake of the moa, the noblest of New Zealand birds. I would, therefore, respectfully suggest to this Conference the creation of two forest Boards, one for each Island, consisting of five gentlemen engaged in, or conversant with, the requirements of the industry, two members of the Land Board, and a Stipendary Magistrate as chairman; and, if this Conference adopts this scheme, that it shall recommend to the Government the creation of two such Boards, and grant to them such powers as will make them effective for the purposes named at the head of this paper; also, that the Government be asked to issue instructions to the Crown Lands Officers to instruct their surveyors that, in cutting up bush lands, they are to report to the Board upon the character of the timber growing thereon, the difficulty or otherwise in the way of access to the block by road, tramway, or railway, or by water, as the case may be; and such other information as would be of service to the Board to arrive at a correct estimation of the position of the timber upon those lands being surveyed. Also, the appointment to every survey staff of a practical man, thoroughly trained to bushwork, connected with timber-milling, who would work under the surveyor, but should be paid an increased wage, and who should report as well to the Forests Board upon the kinds of timber, their quality and quantity, growing on such land, giving sufficient information to the Forests Board to enable them to decide whether a more careful investigation shall be made or otherwise, as they shall determine. When a block of country had been surveyed and reported upon as suitable for the establishment of the timber industry, the Board, furnished with sufficient data to guide them, shall invite applications from timber-millers, who shall state the amount of steam horse-power at their