GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1870, 3 August 1874, Page 2

GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

[Anglo-australian press telegraph AGENCY.] Wellington, August 1. A brilliant debate took place last night upon the Conservation of Forests Bill. Mr Stafford, in an eloquent speech, supported the second reading. So thoroughly, he said, did he believe in the Bill that he would sooner put it oh Statute Book with all its imperfections, and supposing every clause required amending, than see it shelved for future legislation. The Governmentcould carry the measure if it desired, and he hoped the Premier would show he was in earnest by pressing it upon the House. Why cry out it interfered with Provinces? They had already shown that they could not successfully out such a great scheme, and were the Provinces some little God Almighty that the Colony must bow down fi they objected ? Excepting Otago, the Provinces had shown the cold shoulder to the request of the Premier for information upon the question. Some of the Provinces undoubtedly could deal with the matter unassisted, but the Financial Statement showed that the majority of them were asking the Colony for aid, to carry out their ordinary functions. As to ridiculing the idea of a scientific college, without which the whole scheme would fail ; for climatic reasons alone the House should pass the Bill, and make a commencement to preserve our forests for the future. He had, by personal observation, seen a once fertile and populous valley on the Rhone depopulated and converted into a desert of shingle by reason of the mountains adjacent being denuded of timber. He hoped the Government would 3how its willingness to accept any bona fide amendments, and invite the co-operation of the Provinces. Already the Colony was going to Oregon for sleepers for railways ; granted the kauri forests of Auckland would last 30 years, but after that what then, no new kauri was growing up to replace the old. Mr Wakefield, Mr G. B. Barker* and Mr M'Glashen supported the second reading. Mr J. L. Gillies regarded the Bill as an open attempt to wrest from the Provinces control of three per cent of the land of the Colony. In any case they, the Provincial Executives, were the most competent bodies to carry out'such a scheme. The hon. member said he had good reason to doubt the accuracy of the figures given as to the rapid disappearance of the forests of the Colony. Mr Richardson supported the Bill. Mr Thomas Gillies made a bitterly hostile speech, denounced the question as being one between the Provinces and the Colony. He doubted much the accuracy of the facts and figures adduced. Denudation of forests was not always injurious, on the contrary it was sometimes beneficial, as in the case of a forest covered Province like Auckland. He thought that tree planting might be required on the treeless plains of Canterbury, but he considered the General Government had too much to do without looking after the forests of the whole Colony. As to making computations of the probable income derivable from the conserved forests, any of them might make such calculations regarding our oyster beds as to make it appear you could derive revenue enough from them to pay off the national debt of England. The Bill, would give the Government powers which should be in the hands of the House only. The only reason why they were sending to Oregon for timber was, because of the viciousness of our native lard laws in locking up the Kauri forests of Auckland. Such Bills were easily put on the Statute Book, but there was a great difficulty to get them off again, especially when they provided for salaries. The Bill was held out as a cunning bait, but he hoped the Colony would refuse to take it. Mr Fitzherbert made a long and characteristic speech, condemning the mea sure as one, however artistically disguised, which practically meant taking away from the control of the Provinces the ownership of two million acres of the most valuable of their land, without affording ing any equivalent. He had no objection to experimenting on the conservation of forests, but this was like making the model the same as the ship you intended to construct. , Mr Reader Wood concurred in all that fell from the member for the Hutt, and made a most effective speech against the Bill. Mr White, in agreeing with its principle, wished it relegated for more serious consideration. Mr Murray moved an adjournment of the debate. The House rose at half-past 1 2.

A valuabie bed of coal has been discovered on the Duke of Sutherland's estates at Trantham. The Free Library at Maryborough having carried a resolution to exclude the *' Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser " from its list of papers, on account of its heterodoxy, the proprietor of that journal is opening a *arge free redding-room himself, in the middle of the town. In the " Gippsland Guardian" of June, 1856, appears a list of contributions to the Patriotic Fund, then'being canvassed for, to relieve the widows and orphans of the soldiers who fell in the Crimea : — " From the men on Mewburn-park, we have, among a score of other names, that of t Arthur Orton,' stockman, 1 L2i" :