CORRESPONDENCE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1904, 11 June 1892, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

FORESTRY AND TREE PLANTING.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, — I am glad to see that an arbour day is becoming fashionable in many parts of the colonies. The custom, I suppose, has been borrowed from our progressive American cousins, and I must say there is abundance of scope for such a custom on a large scale in the interior of Otago and Canterbury. Ido not think that the benefits derived from treeplanting are thoroughly understood or appreciated by the majority of farmers and settlers in these parts of New Zealand, or they would have more of their farms planted down in trees.

It is due to the credit of the New Zealand Government that it gives very liberal encouragement to those who go to the trouble of improving their properties by means of treeplanting. I believe it gives a grant of two acres to one, or an equivalent advantage iv money. There is one gentleman I know in i Otago who is said to have obtained £400 from the Government for such improvements. And this, too, for improving his own property, so that it is surprising to me there are so few that take advantage of such a liberal offer. The numerous other benefits derived from treeplanting are well known, such as shelter from cold and heat, break-winds, and so on, to say nothing of the' beauty and ornament it imparts to a place ; and, what is much more, it improves the climate by generating moisture, especially in dry, arid districts. These, in themselves, are benefits not to be despised, particularly when added to others of a pecuniary nature, such as utilising the brushwood of the cuttings for firewood ; and as the timber becomes matured it will be serviceable for fencing-posts and in other various ways always required about a farm. Of course, these benefits would not be got from the fir trees generally planted about the most of the farms in these parts of New Zealand ; it requires at least a few acres. As the State derives a considerable revenue from native forests, it should consider it its duty to set aside a portion of the Crown lands iv the forestl&as interior of Otago and other provinces for the purpose of plantation. For instance, if a roadline three chains wide were granted in districts such as Millers and Moa Flats, allowing half-a-chain or a chain for a road in the centre, and the rest planted with trees, I an certain tha.t in

fifteen years or so it would become a source of revenue that would pay for the original cott three times over. Of course the l»nd on the flats alluded to, and in many other places throughout the country, is of very littlo use for any other purpose, with, perhaps, the exception of mining, being generally of a gravelly nature ; but this is the native element of the hardy Scotch fir, while the i ichor soil c<>nld be used for the production of birch, pinus intignis, aud other valuable timbers. The conservation of such forests could be placed under the control of the county councils or other local bodies. No doubt the fencing of such a plantation would add considerably to the original cost, as it would have to be secured against the encroachments of bnony. But the benefits to be ultimately derived would more than counterbalance the outlay, and our descendants would blpss their forefathers for the valuable and beautiful legacy they bequeathed to them.

There arc some gentlemen's estates in the north of Scotland th.vt are well worthy of emulation, as regards plantation, noUltlv those of the Duke of Athol and the Earl (if Seafield. Within these last forty or fifty years there have been upwards of 50,000 acres planted on each of these large estates ; and what was origiually only a large, coniparatn ely useless, moorland waste is now and has leen for many years covered with a magnificent and valuable forest, abounding with game of every description, Wringing in an immense income to its enterprising owners. On these estates wre employed a large number of men, women, and boys, planting trees during the season, and cutting out and barking the most seedy of the young trees as they grow up, these hitter being sold for mining props or converted into railway sleepers. When to these are added a largo number of men and horses engaged carting the timber and baric to railway stations, it. forms <ni industry of considerable extent, and provides employment for a large number of peopie.

The above industry was carried on about a qu-trter of a century ago, and I expect will bo so even to a greater extent now. As the writer w.is employe! on oue of the above mentioned pstul.es in connectiou witti these plantations, he can speak from past experience with some authority as to the numerous incalculable benefits derived by settlers and others situated in districts destitute of timber, if onl>" such a system of plantation wero resorted to. In assisting in this work, the Government wouM he supplying a ranch-needed waufc to those who have settled clown, as well as to those who may in future take up land in parts of the country where Nature has not provided a commodity so valuable to settlement and to the requirements of man. It is to tie hoped that some of oar goahcad and liberal members of Parliament may in the near future see fit to bring a Bill before the House in support of such a scheme. — I am, etc. p. o. a. Millers Flat, 6th June.