THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1893.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9104, 23 January 1893, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1893.

What a contrast to their bare and lonely aspect not many years back, is presented now-a-days by tire waters of the Waiteraata ! Vessels of all sorts and sizes, alongside the piers or anchored in the stream. Mighty argosies that trade to and frO between New Zealand and many lands, however remote. An - occasional ship of war, sometimes flying another banner than the red-cross flag of Britain, as if to remind us that the political surface may be touched by squall or storm as well as the ocean. And last—and y«t, because of its promise of the future, assuredly not least— the multitude of little craft fluttering and darting about under canvas, or open boats, propelled by the strong arms of Auckland's rising generation, as when just now our yachtsmen and oarsmen are busily preparing for their annual regatta. And the activity nowadays presented by her chief port is, let us hope, the sure -forecast of a vigorous maritime and mercantile future for New Zealand. To be seagoing is a prime necessity for this insular people, if it is ever to grow into a nation. Without that, our other gifts and opportunities here will not avail. Above all else, we need to be strong on the sea. In a position, conferring peculiar commercial and political importance, New Zealand has been often referred to as the key of the Pacific. But it would be a great mistake to suppose that such advantages do not bring their responsibilities ; and if we do not act up to them, it were better we had not been cast in any such grand position. These islands, long and narrow, stretching through thirteen degrees of latitude, are more widely ocean-bound than any other civilised country in the world. The Tasman Sea, twelve hundred miles broad, separates us from Australia ; and thousands of miles of ocean are between us and South America. At one end we confront the expanse of the Pacific, while at the other end there is only water, free or frozen, to the polar circle. It is plain beyond doubt that, to act up to our opportunities, or even to hold our own at all, in the changes already begun and further looming at this side of the globe, we will have to make New Zealand a lively maritime State, and prepare her to grow in due course into a real marine power. If not, then our midsea position is a peculiarly exposed and truly dangerous one. In this view we have always ventured to urge the working of our fisheries— proverbial nursery of navies—and the contrivance of some means to preserve State forests. These are manifest necessities—things to be attended to if New Zealand is to fulfil her natural destiny, and if her present progress is not to be cut short.

New Zealand is a country whose future political standing and social welfare peculiarly depend on the permanent reservation of a suitable amount of forests. And yet to preserve State forests is the hardest of tasks in a new country. But it may quicken our interest and ingenuity in the

matter, to understand that the day may not be. far off when, with the exhaustion of our own supply, we may find it impossible to get timber from outside. The collapse mote and more of all the old great sources of timber export had long caused profound anxiety in England, who gets forest products from abroad to the yearly value of over twenty million sterling, and many of whose domestic industries, as well as her maritime greatness, are bound up with the full and unchecked supply. Not' many years have elapsed since the entire forest area of Europe was estimated at 660,000,000 acres. Of this area Russia alone had no less than 470,000,000 aores — while the forests of Great Britain occupied only 2,174*000 acres. But wonderful has been the diminution in more recent years of those vast Russian woodlands. We are now told that over immense tracts of country the woods have been so indiscriminately swept away as to alter the entire face of nature, and that this is particularly the case in the regions traversed by the Volga, Don, and Dnieper. Those great rivers have shrunk, and it seems that even in the grand Volga steamers now find in mid-stream no more than seven or eight feet of water; while the Worokla, the chief tributary of the Dnieper—and on whose banks, near Pultawa, Peter the Great defeated Charles Xll.—has become wholly dry from source to mouth, a distance of 220 English miles. We are told of once fertile valleys thus deprived of shelter, filled with sand by the east wind ; of lakes dried up and villagers deserting the now exposed and barren soil. The extensive creation of factories and railways, using for want of coal wood for fuel, aided the change. The Moscovite may never have great marine needs, but already in another way he is severely paying the penalty of a stupid wholesale destruction of his forests.

Russia and Ameiica used to be regarded as reliable reserves of timber, after other sources of supply would collapse; but both Canada and the United States have contrived to use up, as blindly as other people, most of their endowment of this kind; and it was said of American replanting, that while they planted ten thousand acres of trees a year, they still burned or cut down ten million acres. Yes, to destroy is easy while to restore is difficult, perhaps impossible. So it is common sense to preserve before it is too late. Our woods disappear from various causes. It is necessary to clear ground for settlement ; and again, if this were not a wet season there would be the usual bush fires. State forests cannot exist too soon. Of course hearty public co-operation is requisite. But in other days no songs were so popular as those about the "merrie greenwood," and State forests were then only designed for the pleasure of kings, while they would be now set aside for the pleasure and service of the people. The hearty welcome accorded by old as well as young to the introduction of Arbor Day is a reassuring sign of popular good sense in this direction.