DEVASTATION OR PRESERVATION.

Evening Post, Volume LVII, Issue 25, 31 January 1899, Page 4

DEVASTATION OR PRESERVATION.

Last year more than four thousand adult persons resident in the Nelson and Marlborough districts presented a petition to Parliament praying that the valleys of the Rai, Ronga, and Opouri might be conserved as a national park, and the timber therein preserved for all time. After a lengthy enquiry* before the Waste Lands Committee and much evidence, which, according to present appearances, we shall presently have occasion to critically review, the Chairman of the Committee reported to the House that "the Government should carefully consider the best means of conserving the valuable forest lands in the valleys of the Rai, Ronga, and Opouri." At the time the matter was before Parliament we explained the situation with some detail, and urge*d that the prayer of the petition might be granted, and a magnificent tract of native forest, easily accessible from Nelson, Blenheim, and Wellington, be preserved as a national park for all time. From the national standpoint the reasons upon the side of permanent reservation are overwhelming, while opposed to them are the needs of a local firm of sawmillers and* all the political influence of Mr. Charles Mills, M.H.R. for Wairau. Since the Parliamentary Committee expressed the opinion that the Government should consider the best means of conserving these forest lands, the subject has apparently been allowed to drop quietly out of sight. Now, however, we are permitted to learn the manner in. -which the Government i.9 likely to " conserve" these forest lands^ It was yesterday semi-officially stated, as the result of a recent visit of inspection by the Under-Secretary for Lands, that while "the bush scenery in the Rai and Ronga Valleys is unsurpassed in any other part of the colony, and the authorities 1 hesitate about allowing it to be devastated, yet at the same time they incline to the view that a valuable industry will be stopped if all the timber in these localities is strictly preserved." This, stripped of vdrbiage, appears to mean that the Department of Lands, instead of conserving these forest lands, intends to permit the local sawmiller to devastate them. Now, the. plain English* of this business is said to oe this : Mr. Charles Mills, M.H.R., is Senior Whip and a valued adherent of the Government. At the last election he won the Wairau seat by a very narrow majority. At the coming election he will be strongly opposed. If the sawmillers of the district get leave to appropriate the timber of the proposed National Park, it will be but natural that they will cast their votes and interest solid for the politician who has championed their cause. The Government cannot afford to los% either the seat or the services of the Senior Whip, and as the desire of the thousands of petitioners may conflict with the welfare of Seddonism it needs no wophet to foretell the probable rQsult. To o\ir mind a national wrong will be perpetrated if these noble forests are devastated for private gain, but if it is to be, we hope that it will at least have the effect of consigning Mr. Charles Mills to permanent political oblivion.