Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7921, 13 April 1887, Page 4

The letter from the Agent-General to Sir Julius Vogel, relating to New Zealand timbers, which appears in another column, will be perused with interest by our readers. It refers to the estimate of several varieties formed by an expert, Mr. Ransom, af fcar applying to them the tests by which their qualities were ascertained. But it also points dut that the prospects of creating a demand for these in the British markets must depend on private enterprise and the condition and quantity of the supply that may be forwarded. As Sir Dillon Bell observes, there ia no escape from this inexorable commercial canon. The way in which he describes the trade methods by which foreigners are everywhere, and in all branches of trade, supplanting the efforts of Englishmen in the various markets of the world, by lowness of price, adaptability to existing wants, and a great variety of choice, i 3 very suggestive, and indicate the points to which the British traders must give, greater heed if they would retain or recover the lead in human enterprise. With respect to our timber, what the people of this colony require to do is not only to concern themselves with the prospect of a profitable opening for an export thereof to a foreign market, but also the providing of a supply of the same for their own future wants. Daily that supply is being rapidly diminished, while for the replenishing thereof no adequate or systematic measures are being taken. This reckless and inconsiderate mode of treating the question of forestry is one which can no longer be safely left to the operation of chance, but must be seriously undertaken by the Goverumeut. Money spent upon a careful supervision of this matter will in the course of years prove one ef the State's best sources of revenue, besides being of incalculable benefit to all the industries of the country.