REAFFORESTING.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 5, 25 May 1883, Page 21

REAFFO RESTING.

The reafforestiog of Ireland has become a leading subject of interest. Archbishop Croke, of Oasbel, writing to R. I). Lyons, who is leading the agitation for planting forest trees on bare lands, says :— " Educational grants, you say, have been either wholly withheld or grudgingly granted ; arterial drainage, though long and loudly called for in extensive districts, has never b«en attempted; millions of acres of waste lands have been left unreclaimed ; no practical attention has been ever paid to deep sea or other fisheties; fuel is at fabulous prices in a country where turbaries abound ; and thousands of the labouring classes are suffering actual starvation, though profitable employment may be had for them at their very doors. Such is the indictment that yon have drawn up against British rule in Ireland." Dr. Croke belseves in the project of reafforesting the country, because, in his own words, "it would extract a million of money from the British Treasury for Irish purposes ; it would be the means of employing at least 100,000 men, besides lots of women and children ; it would render profitable 250,000 acres of land now nearly useless ; it would beautify the country ; it would afford increased and much-needed shelter to cattle ; it would supply cheap fuel and materials for fencing, besides being, no doubt, otherwise highly beneficial from a sanitary point of view." But the Archbishop asks : " For whom are these forests to be planted 1 Are the people to get the benefit, or the landlords '/ " If the former, Dr. Croke says, " well and good." He adds :—: — 11 But if, on the other hand, the contemplated forests are to be planted at the public expense by Irish labourers, and for the benefit of Irish landlords, I beg leave to enter my emphatic protest against your scheme of reafforesting Ireland." The answer of Dr. Lyons to Archbishop Croke is interesting. He alvocates the plan of making the trees "a crop," the property of the occupiers who plant them, their value to be allowed in case of sale or loss of holding. Dr. Lyons says : — French and Prussian engineering researches Bhow that reafforesting is the primary operation in all works of reclamation. It regulates rainfall, prevents the downsweep of the mountain detritus, which has in forty years almost wholly nullified and destroyed the arterial drainage of Ireland, partly attempted, which in 200 years has silted up our streams and rivers, made navigation difficult and impossible, poisoned and driven further and further seaward the fish frequenting our shores, and rendered our once abundant fishing industries impossible till anew supply of large craft and a heavier and more expensive nets and other engines are procurable. ReafE .-resting will bring immediate occupation, will earich the country and everyone in it, will save the country from further waste, clear our rivers, and invite inshore to purified waters the fish God sends in abundance to feed our people. Reafforesting is in scientific engineering the first of the operations for utilising our waste lands."