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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4170, 1 August 1874, Page 2

The New Zealand Forests Bill was before the House last night, on the question of the second reading. Congratulations poured in from all sides to the Premier on the ability with which the scheme had been introduced; there was an all but unanimous wish that the Bill should be read a second time ; but the question was, whether the Bill, being read a second time, should then be referred to the country until the following session, or should be pressed on during the present sittings. Had the Ministry assented to the desire to accept the second reading of the measure as an earnest that the House would cordially assist the Premier to carry the Bill into law in 1875, it would have passed that ordeal with only the faintest dissent. But when, in response to a direct appeal from the hon. member for Timaru, Mr. Yogel stated that the Ministry had no other intention than to endeavor to carry the Bill this session, the discussion became warmer. The armor of resistance was put on, and at a late hour the debate was adjourned until Tuesday. It cannot be said that the debate of last night was of a kind to show that the House was capable of improving upon the details, much less appreciating the principles, of the measure. The greater number of the members who spoke appeared unable to grasp the full importance of. the ideas embodied in it. Others seemed to be very ill-informed as to the result of the inquiries into the subject of the denudation of forests in other countries. One hon. member—apparently a thoroughly practical man—saw with alarm the proposal to create schools and colleges for instruction in forestry, and knew there were practical men in tile country who were prepared to have the forests of the Colony well looked after, and who would glory to see the work “ thoroughly well done,” merely ‘‘ for the love of the thing.” Some members Saw in the Bill a covert attempt upon Provincial Institutions—the insertion of the thin edge of the wedge which was to overturn the whole Provincial system. Another thought the Government was altogether too paternal, and should let the people alone. He was the Mrs. McClarty of the debate. Ho “ could na’ bo fashed” with this troublesome business of seeing to the preservation of the forests, the maintenance of the fertility and amenity of the country, the provision of proper supplies of proper timber to meet the great and growing requirements of the country ; and to secure from the forests in time to come that revenue which they are capable of returning to the public treasury. Only one member had the “ courage of his opinion” to say that ho thought° the Bill not only useless but mischievous. One hon. member, who spoke from the experience of a lifetime in Auckland, had the amusing hardihood to assert that if the papers placed on the table gave an accurate account as to how timber was handled and dealt with in the saw-mills of Germany, those poor wood-, men were at least three hundred years behind Now Zealand in the knowledge of their craft. The same hon. member used the extraordinary arguments that because there wore some thirty or thirtyfive years’ supply of timber round some of the largest saw-mills in Auckland Province, and that the native forests shared that ‘ ‘ mysterious influence", under which aboriginals disappeared when the white man made his appearance, and were dying rapidly—therefore it was not necessary to interfere for their

conservation, or to take any measures for the supply of timber to the people who will be inhabitants of New Zealand thirty or thirty-five years hence. ; But the same hon. member answered out of his own mouth another of his arguments against the measure—that the time had not come for interfering with the management of the forests ; for he instanced the Province of Auckland again to show that a change of system had already been found necessary. • There, for a license-fea of £5, at one time, any person might enter a forest, take as many men with him as be pleased, and cut as many thousand pounds worth of timber as he chose ; but that system was so obviously bad that the Provincial law was changed. The argument of tho Government now is, that the state in which the forests are left is equally deserving of amendment, and therefore they propose to conserve .them. Another hon. member thought that the soil could be much better employed than in growing timber; and, therefore, it may be presumed, he is not only prepared to dispense with fresh plantations, but to see the existing forests go to tfaste, without any future provision of timber, so that corn or potatoes alone might be cultivated. One member who opposed the carrying of the Bill beyond the second reading this session saw great danger lurking in the provision that the Governor, withtheadvice of the Executive, should be able to frame regulations for the management of the forests, and should prefer to see them all embodied in the Bill; and was troubled about the mixing up of the affairs of the forests with those of tho Public Works. Ha thought the care of tho forests should be left to the people ; but, in the same breath, informed the House that whenever a settler appeared in a white pine forest—as soon as roads were opened, and drains made, and cattle wandered abont—tho trees began to die away, and refused to be comforted back into healthy life again. And last, but not least, another representative from the South Island thought the conservation of the forests was an impossibility ; and yet —and we may perhaps say ‘ ‘ therefore”- - ho proposed to entrust the task not to the Government, but to the Superintendent of the Province.

As its have said, not more than one member held that the Bill was radically bad. It was urged for it—and most strongly, by the hon. member for Timaru, Mr. Stafford —that the time had come when the subject now under consideration must be taken in hand. The “ let alone policy,” said one member had been tried since New Zealand had been settled, and they saw the forests disappearing before them —destroyed in the most wanton manner. Another hon. member was satisfied that no time was to be lost in taking care of the existing forests, and making new plantations ; for, amongst others, the economical reason that the use of less than full-grown trees led to great waste at last* while from seventy to a hundred years were required to bring to maturity most of the English trees which it would be desirable to cultivate. Sir 0. Wilson gave the House the benefit of his own experiences in India, and of personal friends in Mauritius, extending over a very long period of time, to add to the information before the House as to the dangers of denuding a country of its timber, and the necessity of the existence of forests of considerable extent to preserve the fertility of the soil. Mr. Stafford urged the Government not to be content with the second reading of the Bill, but to press it forward during the present session. There was no other large subject engaging or likely to engage their attention, and all the members of the House knew that they had before them now as much information on the subject—in the able paper compiled by the Treasurer —as they would be in possession of when Parliament met in another session. The fdrests were disappearing before their eyes; the Provincial authorities had done nothing, and most of them were incapable of doing anything, in a work of such magnitude and importance; and only one of the Superintendents (that of Otago) had given any assistance to the Premier by the reply forwarded to the Premier’s circular. He asked the House to accept the Bill before it as the beginning of a great national work that must be begun at some time ; and which could not be expected to be perfected until they had learned something by experience.

It was left for Mr. Fitzherbert at a late hour of the evening, to offer the first real opposition to the Bill. He denounced it in the strongest terms, as little less than a robbery of the Provinces, and Wellington in particular, to assist the Colonial Government out of the difficulties into which their public works policy was leading them. It was with “repugnance” that ho regarded the Bill as necessary as a supplement to the public works policy of the Colony. 210,000 acres of the best lands of the Province would be taken from Wellington if the measure became law. He admitted the desirability of conserving the forests, but “looked with distaste and distrust” on tho manner in which that object was proposed to bo.attained. It was called, he observed, “a great experiment”—but experiments were all made on a small scale, as this should have been. . If £19,000 or £20,000 had been asked to enable tho Government to to bring over skilled foresters from Germany to examine the forests of tho Colony, and then to have made reliable calculations and plans, ho would have assisted to obtain the vote with pleasure.; But he put it to tho experience of every colonist whether £IO,OOO a-year for ten years was a sufficient sum for tho management of two million acres of forest —carefully omitting from view the receipts from those forests within those ten years! Mr. Fitzherbert, in short, saw in the Bill a Machiavelian scheme for the overturn of Provincial authority and stiff-backed Superintendents in particular; and on this cross scent —this herring across the trail—led tho House away from the real national objects of the measure. Wo scarcely think Mr. Fitzherbert’s bubble will bear the breath which will blow upon it on Tuesday.