THE CONSERVATION OF FORESTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 39, 21 October 1871, Page 8

THE CONSERVATION OF FORESTS.

(to THE EDITOR OE THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL.) Sir, —It is pleasant for us penitus toto orbe divisos New Zealanders to observe our adopted country attracting notice in far distant lands. The fame of the geysers and other wonders of the Phlegrcean fields in the North Island, and the grand mountain scenery, the great glaciers and romantic fiords of the Middle, made known to the world by the pen of Hochstetter and pencil of Chevalier, already begins to attract travellers for pleasure and information to our shores, whilst the attention of scientific societies on the continent, as well as in England, is being specially directed to these islands by the interesting publications of the New Zealand Institute. It will be still more satisfactory if hereafter we should be able to point to practical results from the conversations in the MEori house in the judicious development and husbanding of the 'resources of the country. No subject, not even the goldfields or coal seams, deserves greater attention than that alluded to on Saturday evening at the meeting of the Philosophical Society —the management of our woods and forests. c Whether we look to the consequences or the reckless destruction of the trees and shrubs in the disastrous floods which are certain to follow, such as described by Dr Wojeikof in his interesting paper on the change of climate, &o. in the valley of the lower Volga, and pointed out by Mr Travers as visible close at hand in that of the Hutt ; the waste of valuable timber ; or the amelioration of the climate by planting suitable forest trees on the open plains on the eastern side of the cordillera, the necessity for action is equally evident. The subject is now receiving great attention in many countries, especially in British India, and beneficial results, promising great ones for thefuture, are already observable, since the establishment of the department of Commissioners of Woods and Forests. Candidates for appointments in this interesting branch of the civil service are required to undergo a regular course of suitable education, passing one year in Scotland, one in France, and the last in Germany, at the schools where arboriculture and other necessary qualifications on the special subjects of study. If the candidate passes the required examination at the different seminaries satisfactorily, the expenses of his education are defrayed by Government, and he is at once sent to the scene of his future labors in the glorious forests of the Himalaya and Burmah. I think it would be most desirable if some such department on a moderate scale were recommended by the members of the society to be established in this country. Any one who has wandered through the once magnificent, but now fast disappearing cedar forests of Australia, or kaui’i pines of New Zealand, and mourned over the prostrate giants ruthlessly felled, and left to rot by ignorant lumberers must see how necessary it is to do something in the matter, before the projected railroads bring the axemen into the forests of the upper valleys of our streams. —I am, &c., J Sees. October 16,1871.