TREE-PLANTING REGULATIONS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 878, 6 November 1874, Page 2

TREE-PLANTING REGULATIONS.

The Forest Regulations, contained in the rovincial Government Giizette of the 28th t., have now been tolerably well circulated. >rae two or three years ago three was conierable enthusiasm about the matter, and >plications were made for land for the pur>se of tree-planting. A deaf ear was then lined to these applications by the Provincial ithorities, and applicants got wearied out id disgusted with the do-nothing kind of »tion pursued. "We do not think that, from lis district, the same number of applications ill again be lodged. Why the Provincial ovemment have been so loath to set apart ,nd for snch purposes we do not know, tcept that they chose to shelter themselves ehind a hedge of formalities, and made it pparent that they entertained many doubts s to how they could act Had the present jgulations been issued a couple of /ears ago, ; would have been better for the interests f the Province. As it is, they are prolaimed a day after the fair. The General Government, we presume, will soon be enterag into competition with growers of timber, lowever, in certain parts of the united J rovince of Otago we hope these regulations pill have an encouraging effect. We wish, o far as regards this district, that another ►reclamation of a different kind had aecom>anied this one. We allude to a much required amendment of the present vexatious ind unsuitable timber cutting regulations, vhich are actually preventing inexhaustible vood supplies from being profitably used, rhey are, in fact, locking up the bush to illow it to decay and rot We do not know whether to hold out this fact as an inducement and encouragement to persons to avail themselves, at last, of these planting regulations, or to use it as a deterrent against doing so. They are capable of beingiooked at, so far as regards this district,in these two lights. However, we give a synopsis of the regulations, and let each intending tree planter decide for himself. The regulations are made under the 169 th clause of the " Otago Land Act, 1872;" but they could as well have been issued aud sanctioned by the General Government long before that Act came into existence. . The following precis is from the Vuardian : —The first step is to make application to the Land Officer acting in any district for a license to occupy an allotment of land in terms of the Act above referred to. This application will be dealt with by the Waste Lauds Board, and, if it is granted, the applicant, in the event of the land applied for not having been already surveyed, must have it surveyed at his own expense within six months of the date of the grant. It is necessary that the surveyor engaged for this purpose should be approved by the Chief {Surveyor. The license will confer a term of years, commencing from the date of the survey by the Waste Lands Board. The conditions imposed on the licensee are as follows" The licensee shall, during the first year of the said term, fence with a sufficient fence, withiil the meaning of the Fencing Laws in force at the time in the Province of Otago, not less than one-fourth part of the laud licensed, so as to have the whole fenced within four years, and shall properly maintain the said fence during the currency of the license. w The license shall, during the first four years of the said term, each year, not later than August, plant one-fourth of the land so fenced, with British, American, Australian, or New Zealand trees of approved kinds, so that the whole area licensed shall be planted within four years; the plants to be placed not more than eight feet apart,.and managed after the most approved principles of forestry." Four years after an area of at least onehalf of the allotment has been planted, the licensee will be entitled to a Crown granl> for the planted portion, conditionally on the trees grown thereon numbering 500 to the acre, and in the case of gum, wattle, poplar,, and willow to a height of not less than five feet, or in the case of other descriptions of trees to a height Of three feet. We presume these heights have been decided on after due and careful inquiry, though we should have supposed that in the colder and more elevated parts of Otago they were somewhat in excess of the ordinary growths, some of the best class of pines, for instance, are very slow growers, and would scarcely make three feet in four years unless pretty well grown when planted. Further regulations impose on the licensee the duty of sending to the Waste Lands Board half-yearly reports of the progress made in planting the allotment. A.nd, by of checking any statements therein made, an officer of the Board„may from time to time be directei to inspect the plantations, and report thereon. In the event of any breach of the regulations, or in case of insufficient work having been done, " either in planting, rearing, thinning, draining, fencing, or other means for producing a forest," the Board may cancel the license. Prior to doing so, however, one month's notice of their intention must be sent to the licensee by post, or it may be published three times in the 1 Provincial Gazette Upon publication of the actual cancellation in the ' Gazette' the license will cease, " without any right on the part of the licensee to compensation on any account whatever." A form of aplication is appended, for the use of intending free foresters.