BUSH RESERVES.

Otago Witness, Issue 988, 5 November 1870, Page 5

BUSH RESERVES.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir— The Popofcunoa and Waiwera districts are not generally muoh blessed, or, as some might deem it, troubled, with causes of excitement. To get along quietly and easily, and let the outside world wag as it will, has been hitherto pretty much the rule among the residents, and from being at first a necessity, has almost come to be regarded as a duty. This ohronio monotony, however, has of late been very rudely broken in upon by a paternal Government. Most people in New Zealand find firewood a necessity of life, and the settlers in these districts are no exception to the rale. But while necessary enough, the majority have fonnd it hard to get it. The reserves, which have hitherto supplied the firing and fencing wants of these districts, are very limited in extent — amounting only to nearly three hundred acres— and the distance to which it had to be conveyed has always oaused it to form no I small item in the settlers' expenditure. One ! would naturally imagine that the small extent of fire and fencing wood available, and the large demands made upon it, would have suggested the possibility of the bush very soon coming to an end ; and also a question as to how the want of it might be compensated when that contingency occurred ; and hence the advisability of some little oare in the ttse of the present supply, and the adoption of some means or other to seoure its being continued. But on the principle of ÜBing the good things of this life while they laßt, and letting the future take care of itself, the bush— at least, every portion ?U it) worth anythi»g~-b*B been

lately disappearing at a rate which rendered it quite certain that in a few years at most it would be numbered among the things that were ; .while no means whatever have been taken by any one to plant trees, or in any way provide against that rapidly approaching contingency. Of oourse, what waß everybody's business was nobody's business ; and though the probability of having neither firewood nor fencing in a little while might at times excite uncomfortable emotions in the breasts of some more than usually thoughtful individuals, yet why should they trouble themselves any more than others by meddling in the matter ? And after all, of course, something or other would turn up, and everything be right in the end. Very comfortable doctrine no doubt, and as we all know, very generally acted on; but viewed in the light of experience and common sense, not a very prudent one. So, at all events, the Government seems to have concluded,, and as people could .not or would not take care of themselves, the Executive undertook to do it for them. Suddenly the information was diffused that the Bush Reserves, so long free to all, were to be henceforth free to nono; that, in the language of the sufferers, not even a whip-handle could be cutwithoutpeimission; that, in short,they had been leased for a term of 21 years, to one individual on the sole conditions of selling the wood at a state! price, and replanting the bush as it was cleared. Great was the commotion. •' Government had no right to do anything of the kind ; the bush belonged to the settlers and not to the Government j they would not have bought land in the district had it not been for its proximity to free bush ; and, now, Government —the seller of the land, on those implied conditions —had broken faith with them," &c, &c. In the first flush of honest indignation, some enterprising individuals even mooted the advisability of making a united raid into the bush —rushing it, in fact, and cutting where and what they pleased, in spite of Government, and lessee and every one else. For a wonder, too, every one was for once agreed that it was quite right and necessary that some means should be taken to secure a future supply of wood as well as a present one ; but, of course, the means that had been taken for them were the very worst that any body could have Lnagined. Another wonder, too, even greater than the first, speedily appeared; and not only was opinion for once unanimous, but even united action was taken —though, it is to be feared, pretty much on the principle of locking the ttable door after the steed was stolen. A meeting was called, and attended by almost every one within a radius of six or seven miles. A committee was elected to collect; and state their grievances; and with an uneasy consciousness of their own dereliction in the past • humbly to request the powers that be to place the bush in the hands of a local committee—say, for instance, the Road Board of the district —who would see to the issuing of licenses and take proper means both to preserve and continue the bush. The Committee, on applying themselves to the work, found the grievances and weak points of tha case neither few nor far between. The lease was speedily declared to he a tissue of ab. surdities from beginning to end, and quite unfitted to secure the end proposed. As a specimen of it, the Government, while, with painful minuteness, carefully closing np every - loop . hole, to compel tne rigid performance of his duties by the lessee, had left the back door wide open. The main reason of the whole transaction, and the main supposed condition of: the lease us well, was to seoure the replanting of the bush as it got cleared. With a vivid sense of this, the lease provides that as soon as one acre shall be thoroughly cleared— every tree out down and removed, and all scrub, undergrowth, &c, burned off—then it shall be replanted with blue gum trees, so many feet apart, which, after growing for five years, shall be thinned out, leaving the remainder so many more feet apart, &c ; and so on for every individual acre as ib becomes ready for the operation. This looks very well at first view; but, somehow or ether, ib has been totally neglected to fix any time when this first or any acre has to be thoroughly cleared as stated. So that, so long as the lessee is only careful enough to abstain from clearing thoroughly one entire acre, he may take his run of the bush during the entire term of his lease, and cut when and how he pleases without being legally obliged to replant a single tree. This and other results were duly represented in a memorial, humbly praying, &0., &c. After a delay of some months, the Government condescended to reply. Taking up the complaints one by one, it showed entirely to its own satisfaction that tne memorialists were labouring under an entire misapprehension as to the justice of the course taken by Go. vernment, and the results certain to flow from it. In fact, the memorialists had no grievances at al],; they had not been looking after their own interests, and the Government h*d done it for them. Bub the said memorialists obstinately refuse to see their mistake, aad even have the audacity to insist that the Government is mistaken, and not they. It is even intended to bring the matter before the Provincial Council for final settlement j and so, for the present, it resta; Meanwhile a few parties, who have the good luck to own portions of bush, are cutting and selling as fast as they oan, and consider they are making a pretty good thing of it; and they, at all events, have no wish to see the states quo at an end, —l am, &c , .Waiwera. a Settler.

Sfc. Bathanß is reported to have been visited by two or three hurricanes a week during the past month,