THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1882.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6570, 7 December 1882, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1882.

"TnE American Forestry Congress," which lias been sitting in Montreal, and at which one hundred delegates were present, may be expected toliave some practical consequences. The object was to devise means for preserving ' in the United States and Canada, a permanent stock of forest for-the public service, and we will look with no small interest for the official report and its recommendations and plans on a subject which is of pressing importance for many other countries as well as America. This task of preservation is easy in Europe where population is close, Hot scattered, and where there are large bodies of officials to take care of the State woodlands ; but it is quite otherwise in a new country, where such reserves for the public benefit are at the mercy of anybody who may not be intentionally mischievous, but only ignorant or simply inconsiderate. How often in these colonies the "tirestiek,"' I or, in dry Tveather, even the accidental dropping of a pipe-light, causes an amount of devastation which our chilihvn—perhaps the present generation j itself—may have serious reason to deplore.

Of course, Ministries and Legislatures havo long since seen the necessity to provide for the future in this way, and accordingly there have been Acts of Parliament and the marking out of State reserves. But the reservations prove a mere matter of form, and the provisions on the Statutebook a dead letter, because the fulfilment of the object rests on the cooperation of the neighbouring public, and the feeling, speaking generally, bas not been zeal but indifference. And much as this is to be lamented, perhaps it is not to be wondered at. In at any rate the early stages of colonisation people see so much forest about them that they come to believe there is no end of it. It is in their way when they require to settle on the land, and only with labour and trouble is it got out of the way. Habit is potent, and even after the woods have ceased to be an impediment the habit continues of regarding them as a superfluity of nature, perhaps something werse. Of course this lack of discrimination on the subject is very far from universal among our rural population, but still there is enough of it to leave unprotected State forests in jeopardv. While the many are inditi'erent, and onlv a few really zealous, an occasional wantonly careless or mischievous per son will continue to do harm.

I£ these reserves cannot be protected in any other way they should at least have the protection of public opinion among the neighbouring inhabitants; and public opinion, which would regard and deal with any act of injury as a grave offence against the general welfare, would prove very forcible in this case, as it does in others. But the schoolmaster is not yet abroad on the subject. It is only in the current trial that real consideration has been <riven to the matter in any quarter —that Governments and Parliaments have anywhere taken it up as a serious question of public policy. The extraordinary spread of commerce is enormously increasing the demand for timber, while, side by side with it, the supply is as fast diminishing, in the absence of precautionary measures, under the rapid spread of colonisation. And the experience of civilised man in many climates, in many parts of the globe, and the growth of scientific knowledge are showing what a powerful intluence is exercised by the woods in the economy of nature —how their too complete and indiscriminating removal causes abnormal conditions of the atmosphere, affecting the springs and the flow of rivers and the earth's fertility and its productions. These are things now very well known, but not yet universally known or heard of. And until there can be a popular waking up to the gravity of the case the preservation of the necessary woodlands is exceedingly difficult in all newcountries. The danger is that by the time there is the general anxiety to preserve them the forests will be gone, and to preserve and to restore are tasks of very different facility.

The present is the time of dancer in this way, and naturally a matter of such consequence is under attention in many quarter*. The Governments of Victoria and Xew South Wales have again taken it up, and in the late sessions both in Sydney and Melbourne there wore long debates over it ; but we eanuot rind that much light has been thereby shed on the essential point— namely, as to the means by which the reserves are to be really protected and preserved. Suggestions for this end, information of this needful character, is perhaps more likely to be obtained from the Congress in Montreal, inasmuch as it has been assembled for the one special purpose, and the delegates would hardlv return without some practical conclusions. Canada is now thoroughly alarmed. Timber has long been her main export, and the goose -which has been laying her golden eggs has not been taken cave of. Besides the export to Europe, she has been also for some time exjiorting to the neighbouring States of the Union which, having parted with their own forests, are now dependent on Canada, and there, we are told, that the exhaustion of the merchantable timber is in near vie^r-.

It is a subject which requires real attention in Xew Zealand, as well as in Canada or the United States or the Australian colonies. Our country is insular, and we must be commercial and maritime, and a permanent supply of timber for ship building is indispensable—the More so because a supply from without will be soon harder to get. This consideration alone should be sufficient to stir us, and there are other considerations quite as important. Among the possible arrangements, -we cannot but think that the District Schools could be used to popularise information respecting the value of forests, the various services they render, and th.B danger of being without them. A few pages in one of the school manuals could bo devoted to this

instruction. Aad that it would bear' fruit we would net hare to wait for the children to grow up. Information with this local bearing would spread from them among thoir families. Tfaeir elders would soon appreciate it 3 yalue. A.nd whaterer arrangements may be made for permanently reclaiming in these islands sufficient forest the hearty co-operation of the neighbouring people -would be always a powerful assistance.