OUR FUTURE TIMBER SUPPLY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVII, Issue 138, 13 June 1913, Page 2

OUR FUTURE TIMBER SUPPLY.

[to the editor.] Sir —When -writing my first letter I fully expected that li < result would be on a par with the sower who went out to sow his seed and most of the seed fell upon barren soil and. rock, '.-consequently did not take root: some fS?uson good soil, and the result was ■quite the contrary- Evidently this £as happened in my efforts to. arouse, public interest, for it has been the means of inducing that old veteran, Mr Lambert, boldly to speak has mind in favor of the cause I am advocating. In his letter Mr Lambert gives some idea of the large amount of money the Government has been receiving .by way of tithes for timber cut upon Orown lands, and considers, we are justly entitled to a portion oi it tor reforesting our waste lands. A tew weeks back we saw the snow lying thicjdy upon the foothills surrounding the plains; like the money received in the past, it has vanished for ever; we ehaHnever &cc that same snow again. Neither is there a hope of seeing any of the money. But for the money that the Government will receive from the same source in the future, it will be our own fault if a claim for a iair portion of it is not made and obtained. Our present Member, I feel sure, will leave no stone unturned in an endeavor to obtain this for us; but we must strengthen his hands. In the past I will compare our conduct to a £est of young birds- The Government has fed us for a, long period; let us leave the nest, have confidence in, ourselves, and commence to fossick on our -own account. By this I mean put our hands into our own pockets, and start the machinery in motion. I am quite willing annually to contribute my mite to bring this about. It we do this our Member can face the fountain-head, and state boldly that his constituents had fully made up their minds to plant the waste landsi m their possession. He would then stand a, good chance of being listened to, for is it not a real pfeasure to assist those who are willing to help themselves r This tree-planting has got to be done. As surely as the sun rises and sets, so sure will this work have to be undertaken- if not by the psresent generation, then" by the one that follows m our wake. Mr Lambert and myself may write, in trying to induce others to. do only what is their bounden duty, until the orack of doom without effect, unless others will think seriously and aot wisely in this all-important mattea1. Marlborough in the past has produced heavy crops of cereals and roots, light crops of public-spirited men, but is nearly as free as, a frog is of feathers of men with a philanthropic turn of mind. , Many colonials are apt to /pout their breasts and criticise the way things are done in the Old Country, and consider in-, their conceit that if she followed in our footsteps a revolution for the better would be the result of so doing. After an absence of about 34 years, I a few years back paid a visit to England. I did not find Old Grandmother asleep; although she may be heavy with age, her eye is as keen and as • bright as ever. The trunk may be old, but it sends forth shoots, strong and vigorous, that like our rata vine eclipse the old tree. During a visit to Birmingham I was present at a largo unemployed meeting held in the Town Hall of that city, and there gathered from speeches delivered that " some of the old pit banks had been levelled and planted in trees, with a . result that had succeeded beyond the most sanguine expectations. Evidently the Mother Country sees she has made a mistake, and is doing her best to rectify it. It was also advo-

cateel from the platform that the Government should take mofe of them in hand, and treat them in a like manner. To my surprise I saw patches of land that I remember, as a boy, covered with gorse and blackberries, cleared, fenced in, and planted with trees. (For the information of those who hare never seen a pit bank, I may here state that they are composed o£ the headings and mullock that have been taken out of the mine in the working of the coal). By the foregoing it will show that Britain is fully -alive to the importance of planting her waste lands in trees. ♦ It is not necessary again to traverse the ground I went over in my first letter; but I may here state that in a secluded spot, not many miles from town, there are gums that have attained a height of nearly 200 feet; their trunks are as straight as gunbarrels. There are other useful quickgrowing trees beside the ones I have mentioned, notably the larch:; it is planted extensively in many parts of England. Mr James Burnett, chief engineer of the working railways, giving evidence before the Forestry Commission recently sitting in Wellington, stated that the locally grown eucalyptus had not proved: durable when used as sleepers. He accounted for this to a certain extent for want of maturity; could they be expected to be lasting? Why, the oldest trees planted in this province are only saplings as yet. But in these progressive times, necessity, the mother of invention, will devise some means of making our soft timbers more durable. For some years, by careful study, the United States Forest Sea-vice have proved beyond doubt that it has taken, thousands of years for some of the gigantic trees growing in that country to attain their present size. a pftysician attending a patient afflicted by disease applies some (remedy for its cure. And it is only to be expected that after advocating a change in the present order of things, I should make some suggestion whereby the present condition of matters may be remedied. Be it remembered, I am only making a suggestion. Our present representative, Mr McCallum, is for a term of years chosen by a majority of the voters of this province to watch over and guard this portion of New Zealand. Wo all know him, even those who beg to differ with him from a- political point o£ view, to be a public-spirited man, and one who would willingly lend himself for the good of the constituency that he represents. Now, I would suggest that he ca,ll a. meeting inviting members of the Ha.rbot Board, River Board, and of all the Road Boards in the province, to attend; also members of the recently-formed Beautifying Society— not that we could expect monetary assistance from them, but their moral support would be of value, and they would infuse a little of their public-spiritedness into the proceedings. Ttf not theiir aim identical with, that for which purpose the meeting would be called ? How could they avoid being an interested party? Their aim is to beautify the town, and to make :t __ better than they found it. The object of the meeting would be to.devise some scheme whereby the outlying districts could be improved. Being a public meeting an invitation emild be extended to anyone who thought the subject under discussion ,

worthy of their notice. Our energetic Mayor would willingly talke the chair, if requested to do so. Mr Lambert,;! feel "sure,1 would address those assembl- : ed upon the matter; others surely j would have some comments to make, j consequently the ball would be set roll- j ing. Mr Lambert has had nn ambition to have -an experimental farm established in the province. The prospect of attaining, this could also be | discussed. We have met with rebuff so far, but it is not a knock-out blow. Like the prize-fighter in the ring, we must be up and at it again. The Expkess will inform you how necessary j it is to advertise if you hope to succeed in business, not once or twice, i but alwaysi; in like manner we must persist with the Government, and not allow ourselves to be turned down. I will endeavor to get you to look at the subject from a patriotic point of view. A people or nation who are not willing to make great sacrifices for the general good of their country are m the decadent stage, and must soon take a secondary position amongst the | nations of the world. We often hear, j and know it to be a fact, how rapidly | Japan has risen from an obscure posi- j tion to one of prominence, and is con- i sidered a power to be reckoned with.. What has brought about this iwipid and surprising change?' Simply thas: as a nation they are a self-sacrificing people, and have willingly shed their blood for the advancement of their country. Do you think for one moment that Britain would hold her present proud position if our ancestors had been selfish, and had only lived for themselves? No; for hundreds oi: years they were lavishi with their wealth, and shed in streams their blood for the welfare and upbuilding of the nation. Would £he not willingly do so again if any portion of her vast Enipire were attacked by a hostile Power? Consider what sacrifice have we made for this fair land, in which many thousands of us have made good and prosperous homes'. Simply none. We have made great inroad into the natural resources of the country, and have not done one jot to replace or make amends for what we have made use of. It is our duty in some way to restore what we have taken away. Will our children, or the unborn millions, enjoy the same privileges at so cheap a cost? There is no doubt"that some day they will be required to make greater sacrifices than we ever dreamt of making, in order to retain possession of these fair Lands, and to keep the old Union Jack, that emblem of power and liberty unfurled.

The Hillersden estate has recently been acquired by the Government for closer settlement1 purposes, and I feel sure raany will agree with me when I state tjhat the Government will be lacking in foresight if it allows one single plantation, planted and pEotected witn such, care by the late Mr T. Carter, to become the property of. any individual, as some men are just as eager to pull. down, as others are to build up, and in my eyes it would amount almost to desecration to allow any of the trees to be- felled until they have attained maturity. The plantations should either be reserved or handed over to the Road Board of the locality, with a distinct understanding that when the time had arrived for felling the trees profitably, the land now occupied by them should, be replanted. In this and in my previous letter I have to the best of my ability endeavored to show how necessary and impoirtant a matter, this treeplanting and reforesting our waste lands is. I have looked at it from a commercial, practicable, and patriotic point of view. It f has also a sentimental, or may I term it a poetical feature. Many persons have a great desire to leave their footsteps in the sands of time, or, in other words, that the memory of them shall ever be kept green. After long weary years spent in endeavoring to attain this object hoAV fruitless are these efforts ! Scarcely are they kid below the surface before their very names are forgotten. But when the letters engraved upon the stone that marks the spot where Thomas Garter was laid at rest are obliterated, nay, even when' the stone itself is crumbling with age, travellers passing by" what was once known as the Hillersden estate will say "Old Tom Carter planted those trees." Fathers will inform their sons;; these sons will tell their children; so \ that his great desire to leave the country of his adoption better than he found it will be a lasting monument, and an inducement for others to walk in his footsteps. This is the reward the tree-planter may expect.

G. HARRIS