STATE FORESTS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 929, 28 March 1868, Page 3

STATE FORESTS.

(From the "Australasian," Feb. 29.)

In the middle ages enforesting and plantation were carefully attended to, in the interests of sport, for the pleasure of prince and noble. We know how all South Hampshire was turned into woodland because, as the quaint chronicler has it, " King "William loved the high deer as if he were their father." In our own day the restoration and preservation of forests are taken up by Government with equal. ardour, but with loftier motives ; and at the instigation of science Humboldfc led the way in demonstrating the potent influence exercised on climate by the presence of the woods. Careful inquiry in all quarters of the world has placed this fact in the clearest light. There is no longer any doubt that the rainfall of a district can be speedily altered by tree felling or by tree planting. It is wonderful how much moisture even a single tree can catch, keep, and use. When we consider that a helianthus three feet high has forty feet of surface, we may imagine what an amount of humidity is collected and diffused by a forest. The great changes which have taken place in many countries —in climate and in the soil's producing-power — by the too general removal of the woods, or their extensive restoration, are now matters of popular knowledge. Everybody is familiar with the multitudinous illustrations, and not one is more distinct than that furnished by the island of Ascension — a barren volcanic rock, with a solitary fresh-water spring. The trees that shaded it were cut down and the spring dried up ; trees have been planted and the shade restored, and the spring has been brought back.

Especially in countries subject to a strong summer sun and with periodical liability to drought are tho preservation and planting of forests becoming a national concern, an affair of State. In Europe the French Government is particularly active. In America the attention of Congress was lately directed to tho importance of forming extensive plantations on the prairies, and of repairing in some degree, in those states which a generation back wore occupied by "the backwoods,'' the mischief occasioned by the too sweeping clearances of the settler. And in reference- to the prairies a very curious circumstance is mentioned. Never in man's memory or tradition were there forests on those vast grassy plains — nothing but scattered belts of timber beside the watercourses ; but since the migrations of the countless herds of buffalo were interrupted by the settler's presence, trees of various kinds are growing up in many directions, and if there be only a little human forbearance and protection nature seems ready to furnish extensive forests where they were never seen before. The trampling 1 of cattle and their habit of browsing on the tender shoots are fatal to tho growth of trees — a fact which must be recollected in the care of our Victorian State forests.

While cmr woods are still extensive is the tiino for a judicious selection of forest reserves, and reserves have accordingly been made under the Land Acts of 1802 and 1805. A board has been appointed to consider the best means of protecting and improving them, and the report of the board is now before us. Under the Land Act of 1802, 8,507 acres were thus set aside, with 24,000 more specially for . the supply of timber. Under tho amending act of tho year 1805 the total reserve is 82,800 acres. There are only two forests of considerable extent included in tho list — Bullarook, of 42,000 acres, and Dandenong, of 25,000; the rest are of small size. But the board rightly recommends that from time to time particular tracts of country which may be found unsuitable for settlement shall be added, and duly protected and planted. Near Melbourne all the good trees have long since been cut down, and the citizen unacquainted with the bush has no idea of the magnificent timber to be seen in the more secluded and moister mountain regions. Mr. Percy Hodgkinson, honorary secretary to the board, found, near the source of tho "Won Yalloek, a tree which in a straight line measured 330 ft .; the diameter lffc. from the ground was 19ft., and at 70ft. above the ground it was 9ft. Many of the adjacent trees were still larger. One acre of ground contained twenty such trees, of the apparent average height of 350 ft. Indeed, this species, the Eucalypiyus amygilalina, is believed to be the tallest tree in the world. But there aro other kinds of great size also. In the Mount Macecton forest are "mess-mate" i trees 220 ft. high, and 7 ft. in diameter 4ft. , from the ground. It will be perceived,

therefore, that we have indigenous trees of the noblest sort in Victoria. All such splendid achievements of nature when within the State forests ought to be carefully preserved, and not sacrificed in any occasional thinning for timber purposes. It is unnecessary to say that in the reserves the trees .should be registered, as in the public woods of France and England. Otherwise the best will gradually disappear, like those in our Melbourne parks.

Among the several important objects of these reserves is a permanent timber supply. There is an enormous consumption of wood in this colony — nothing like what it was some years ago, weatherboard houses being fewer, but very great still. The report tells us that since the discovery of the gold-fields we have paid over eight and a half millions sterling for imported timber, and it is recommended that there be oxtensive plantations of pine, as the wood most in demand by the builder. On the goldfields there is already great inconvenience as to the supply of wood suitable for underground drives. The adjacent woodlands being used up, the article has to be brought long distances. It has become a "very serious item of mining expenditure," and if by and by scarcer and dearer, the circumstance "will seriously interfere with our mining enterprise." State forests, if properly managed, will prevent this failure of supply. The report proposes to place them under the control of commissioners to be appointed trustees, and that there shall be a new code of conditions to be observed by persons licensed to cut timber within the reserves. The privilege, so liberally extended, of taking timber ad libitwn from Crown lands, has been shamefully abused by licensees of all sorts. They not only take what they want, but we are told waste a hundred times more. They cut down timber and pick the best, leaving the remainder on the ground, to furnish material for the next bush-fire. Rival sawyers, on the dog-in-the-manger principle, cut down more than they require, merely to prevent an opponent getting it, or "to block up his access to "'some coveted patch of fine timber." Then, to construct the bark shanty of the wood-cutter a multitude of the best stringy bark trees are destroyed, as only one sheet of bark is taken from each tree. All this sort of thing the board would amend within the State forests ; but it is a question if it ought not to be amended in reference to our woodlands at large. No man has a right to abuse a privilege so liberally extended by the State, and it seems to us that on a clear conviction the offender's licence ought to be cancelled, or else such a fine inflicted as would prevent a repetition of the malpi-actice. "We cannot see that some check on the present gross system of recklessly wasting our timber resources should be considered a hardship by anybody. It is not permitted in Europe, and it is time to moderate the evil in Victoria.

The report contains a long list of valuable English nnd other exotic trees which it is desirable to plant in the State forests, and which grow far more rapidly here than in the old countries. Also a list of native trees which it is important not only to plant in the reserves, but to protect wherever found now. Such are the sassafras, valuable in medicine ; black-wood, dogwood, muskwood, &c, of great value to the cabinetmaker and turner ; the three species of callitris, now in danger of extinction, and which yield a fine resin ; the hop-scrub, in which there is a principle resembling quinine ; the acacia, the bark of which is already largely exported for tanning ; and a host more of trees and shrubs at present wantonly destroyed or used for the meanest purposes. "We hope this .very suggestive report will soon be made the basis of some practical legislation in reference to our forests.

When " Orator" Hunt (who was a blacking manufacturer) was in Parliament, the late Sir Robert Peel so far forgot himself as to taunt him with this fact, whereupon Hunt sarcastically replied, " The truth is, the honourable member is the first gentleman in his family, and I am the first tradesman in mine."

A Welsh clergyman applied to his diocesan for a living. The bishop promised him one ; but, as lie was taking his leave, he expressed a hope that his lordship would not send him into the interior of the principality, as his wife could not speak Welsh. "Your wife, sir?" said the bishop, " what has your wife to do with it? She does not preach, does she?" — " No, my lord, ' said the parson, " but she lectures."

Wheck of the General Gbant. — The brig Amhevst, recently despatched to the Auckland Islands, has been heard of. The Southland News of the 29th ultimo says : — " By the arrival of the Fanny, Captain Alcer,' we are in possession of intelligence respecting the Amherst, Capt. Gih'o3% and the search expedition in charge of Mr. Henry Armstrong. The Amherst, after a fair passage., arrived at Port Uoss about February the 2nd. The Fanny at this time was at anchor in Camp Cove, Carnley Harbour, and her crew were much surprised on the arrival of the Aniherst's two boats, in charge of Capt. G-ilroy and Mr. Armstrong. They reported having come round the west coast, the side on which the General Graut was wrecked, but had failed to discover any vestiges of the ship or to identify the exact localit} 7 of the place where she was lost. They erected a flagstaff on the following day on Musgrave's Peninsula, and doubtless left the stores in the hut before proceeding to Saddle Inlet, where they intended to form another depot, in accordance with instructions, and then proceed from Port Ross to Campbell and Antipode Islands. In all their wanderings in search of seal — which have to be hunted for inland, through dense scrub, as well as on the beaches- I—the1 — the Fanny's people found no traces of other castaways than those already known to have so long inhabited the island." Post-Nuptial Impediments to Matjumony. — A girl need not give up all her amusements because she has captured a husband ; but the young married woman who is to be seen, night after night, racing down a ball-room with whiskered pandours and liorce hussars, must find difficulty in attending to her household duties in the morning. Ten to one the husband breakfasts by himself, or in company with the newspaper only ; not a bad substitute, it may be, for a wife who is not more than half awake, and cross from weariness and want of sleep. There is no reason why the married sister should dress more dowdily than tlic unmarried ; but the hideously extravagant fashions of dress which prevail in good society are too often caricatured and burlesqued by the young English wife. The matron now-a-days quite eclipses the maiden. She flirts more industriously; she waltzes more violently; she dresses more outrageously. " Hang it ! " said D , the other day, speaking of a well-known beauty, who has not yet ceased to reign, " she knows as much slang as a cabman, she drinks as much as a fish, only it's ouracoa, she gambles like Fox and Sheridan together, she wears a dress which the French police would exclude from the Jardin Mabillc ; and it's for a jade like this that you ask me to give up my crust of bread and liberty— my shilling whist and my pipe. Not if I know it." D is a cynical philosopher; but I suspect that in some respects his sketch is not much" overdrawn. — Fraser's I Magazine for December.