The Press. FEBRUARY 27, 1875.

Press, Volume XXIII, Issue 2971, 27 February 1875, Page 2

The Press. FEBRUARY 27, 1875.

We have lately received f|6m7a publisher In of a work op. Forestry and Hydrology in South *-Africa,; which, jn the present state ofropinion here on these subjects, hiay prove highly interesting. The Author, Dr J. Brown, was- formerly Government the Gape of Good Hope. ,-.* From, the full title of the book we should imagine that it might be -very useful country, ti;e ; 9ts,of '' the former TTydro- ' Y of the causes of its *pres&nt aridity, and Tr^^TQp^atrflirmfeff^O'heapplied. It" is to "be foilofwed by a treatise on the reforesting opearatiqns carried on in ©ranee with a view to prevent the destructive of inundations and..; torrents. From the preface, which has reached us, it appears that the author intends this work to be the com mencement of an, exhiusfci ye series - of treatises upon Forestry, embracing itesearelws into the effectsof waste and destruction of forests in all 1 the chief :a^^tlneß.i6f;: fKe s World, and*fiecounts of the measures fakeii by the more intelligent and far-eeeing Glovernments to produce improvement, An extract from a statement of Dr Hooker shows that amongst these last England and the Jjhglish colonies as a,rale cannot be included. Dr Hooker: says,~.'X'*Mhere- ? eve* the English: rule"extends, with "the single exception of India, the " same apathy,* or at least inaction, " prevails;—As tor the Cape itself, it would appear from the title of the book and some allusions in the preface, that the tcbuntry there, owing to the destruction of the forests, chicly by .Ere, has gradually become extremely 'dry," and that over immense areas now bare and open extensive woods and luxury rotation wers fcraaerlj

Brown does not, however, pffeeiiKJjsSjhfend to confine himself to 'any one country, but to give such complete and clear information as may be useful to all the Colonies, and to persons desirous of establishing plantations in every sort of situation.

"We do not, of course, intend now to reproduce to our readers all the arguments which have been so often used to show why we ought to be more careful in our dealings with the forests of this colony. The subject has been discussed over and over again in the Assembly and in the public prints, and we presume that little doubt will now exist in the mind of any one that we have hitherto been too careless and must soon turn over a new leaf. But the arrival of the prospectus of which we have just given an account, whilst it naturally strengthened our own opinions on the subject, opinions which we have on former occasions expressed, suggested to us also the query —What has been done during the last few months regarding our forests? A twelvemonth or so ago, when our 1 vagrant Premier was banqueting his way } through the colony,there were ooly two things which seemed to him to be of paramount importance. One was the South Sea trade, the other the conservation of forests. His scheme regarding the first died a natural death before the year was out, dropped [for a time even by its originator. But the second grew and flourished, until it blossomed forth before the Assembly as a proposal partly conservative in the interests of the trees, partly precautionary in the interests of the railways, partly aggressive to the interests of the Provincial sj'stem of Government. With its two latter characteristics we are not now concerned. But long debates ensued, and repeated denunciations were made against the ruthless destroyers of our trees, few being more eager and vehement that Mr Vogel himself. It so happened, by the force of circumstances, that the original scheme fell through; but the Government succeeded so far as to obtain from the Assembly a vote of £10,000, which was, as people fondly expected, to do great things with the forests during the recess. iSTow some six months have passed away, but nothing more has been heard of this business. The money is, we presume, still available in the Treasury; but no initiatory work seems to have been done, no appointments have been made, and the prime mover, the great protector of the woods, has gone, Heaven knows where. In the meantime we suppose that in spite of the Premier's denunciations the same old reckless system of destruction is still going on all over the country. Ia not the whole thing redolent of farce? "We do not, mean to say that in six months a fully developed plan for conserving the forests could have been put into active operation, or that a very great improvement could have been expected to have taken place as yet. But surely after commencing with such a flourish of trumpets something might have been done : there was no need to let the whole thing drop in so complete a fashion. "When a mountain such as this laboured so convulsively we should have expected at least some little result. But so far we have not.been treated even to the production of a mouse. The thing becomes perhaps more curious when we consider the manner in which the members of the Government who are left In this country deal with forest questions when they come acroßs themi It was stated the other day that, in the negotiations for the

purchase of the Ohinemuri country, a great bone of contention between the natives and the Europeans was the mode of treating the Kauri forests of the district, The natives do not seem to have made any very great difficulty about partibg with the gold under the ground, but they demurred, and we believe still demur, to losing their rights over the bush. We presume that tKeyNative Minister and the Colonial Secretary, who are conducting the.negotiation on our side, feel pretty confident that the matter will soon be settled to their satisfaction, for we find also a statement of the announcement made by them to the expectant miners' of the privileges they proposed to grant to those who went to Ohinemuri for-gold. Now, one" would have thought that here was a - , splendid opportunity I to commence operations with a forest conservancy scheme. Here is a country quite new, with no sections in private hands, and no embarrassing7land laws ,to stand in the way; and at the same "time a magnificent stretch of woodland to be either recklessly destroyed, or carefully -utilised. But we-have heard nothing of any such. idea on the part of the Government. Ou the* contrary, we are told that the, miners.:-are:'to cut find' destroy the bush as they please, with the condition of.paying only a small sum for a license. We happen to have before us a report of an Inspector of State, Forests in Victoria/Addressed to the Secretary fpr Lands in that ,colony. In it be says—r" in the vicinity 1 of the " great mining.centres the condition of •'* the forests is better or worse jtf* Redirect ratio to the distance from the .■'. centre of demand, Close around " these no stick 3in. in diameter "exists;" ! He goes on to speak of the chances of new bush in the future from the growth of suckers and saplings: 4)iat remarks on this point would be quite inapplicable, generally, l inrNew? Zealand. TTn this country when bush is-once destroyed, or daylight let fairly into it, there is an end of it. No new growth replaces the old, but in time bkre open ground appears where formerly were huge trees. What, then, is likely to be the condition of the Ohinemuri bush in a year or two.? We are quite aware that mining, especially, quartz mining, requires timber, and that the cutting of the trees could not ha altogether prohibited. But the curious part of the thing is that here, on the first opportunity given to the Government since 'key gained the vote of in a * piece of eoantry where they could make almost any conditions they pleased, and where they had an exoelleut otmnos of camparJEg and yppre*

dating results, they have not chosen to do anything. they, or rather their chief, made less fusarlast year over the forests there would have been little to find fault with now in this. They might have said that they thought little of the "forest question." But, as it is, it does seem to us a lamentable break-down, a thorough fiasco.