150 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



acres, and 1,850,000 acres are still bush, 170,000 acres of bush 

 having been already cleared. A forest reserve of 72,000 acres, 

 a circle with a six-mile radius from the top of Mount Egmont, 

 has been made, and has, I find, a Forest Board of Conserva- 

 tors. Of land still available for settlement, 921,000 acres of 

 forest-land remains to be dealt with. Fifty thousand acres 

 may be suitable for agriculture, and 871,000 will be good 

 pastoral laud. From this the writer evidently looks forward 

 to a time when the whole of this vast area of bush has been 

 destroyed, and replaced by grass and crops. 



In Hawke's Bay there are extensive climatic reserves in 

 the mountain-ranges, and to the north are the primeval 

 forests in which the Ureweras live, at the back of Waikare- 

 moana. The forests known as the Seventy-mile Bush have 

 already yielded an enormous quantity of sawn timber, and a 

 very considerable area of excellent totara forest has been com- 

 pletely destroyed. From the look of the small patches which 

 have here and there escaped destruction by axe or fire, it is 

 more than probable that with proper management the mature 

 timber might have been utilised and the immature trees 

 brought into maturity ; and it is a matter for serious inquiry 

 whether the labour, time, and money spent in destroying the 

 bush and putting the land into grass gives a better return than 

 could be got from the valuable timber that might be produced 

 from the land under practical scientific management, together 

 with the utilisation of the by-products and the partial use for 

 graziiig purposes. The northern portion of the Seventy-mile 

 Bush supplies not only the greatest quantity but the best 

 quality of the valuable totara timber, and a properly managed 

 area devoted to the growth of this tree would eventually be of 

 great value and benefit to the State. 



In the Wellington District, out of 6,000,000 acres, more 

 than half are still under bush, and a large quantity of splendid 

 timber is to be found within this area. Much of it will, how- 

 ever, be always inaccessible owing to the rugged nature of the 

 country. 



In the Marlborough District there was formerly about 

 400,000 acres of forest, but a very large quantity has been 

 cut, and a considerable area cleared. 



The forest-land of Nelson comprises about 3,250,000 acres. 



The Province of Westland is almost entirely forest-clad 

 from the snows of its mountain -ranges to the sea, and is 

 estimated to contain 2,395,000 acres ; and but little, com- 

 paratively speaking, has been done in the way of either 

 utilising or destroying any of this important national asset. 

 The heavy rainfall (120in.) on the coast decreases the risk 

 from forest fires, which are assuming serious proportions in 

 dry seasons in Wellington and Hawke's Bay. 



