EDITORIAL 



297 



I 



Far-'away Forestry 



IN OUR news columns will be founJ 

 a paragraph on forestry in Hawaii. 

 Other matter at hand indicates the deep 

 interest of the women of that country 

 in forestry and conservation. 



Far to the southwest of Hawaii, in 

 the latitude of South Africa, is New 

 Zealand, a country which, in some re- 

 spects, is to-day the most remarkable 

 in the world. 



A century and a half ago its inhabi- 

 tants were living in the Stone Age. 

 Among them to-day are some who 

 vividly remember the taste of human 

 flesh and who, like the Israelites in 

 the desert, yearning for the fleshpots, 

 leeks, and garlic of Egypt, still hanker 

 after "long-pig," as this particular 

 species of meat is jocosely called by 

 them. 



New Zealand was discovered by Tas- 

 man in 1642, explored by Captain Cook 

 in 1769, first visited by English mission- 

 aries in 1814, annexed to the British 

 Empire in 1840, partially pacified in 

 1848, and, finally, in 1870; it was given 

 its first constitution in 1852 ; it held its 

 first parliamentary session in 1854; 

 opened its first railway in 1863, and, 

 about that time, entered upon its won- 

 derful career of innovation, progress, 

 and prosperity. 



In 1890, through a combination of 

 farmers and workingmen, occurred the 

 political overturn whereby the control 

 of the government passed from the 

 conservatives to the progressives. Since 

 . that time has come the movement for 

 the nationalization of land, including 

 state resumption of large estates, the 

 progressive taxation of land values, in- 

 comes and inheritances, the checking of 

 panics through government control and 

 guarantee of bank issues, the national- 

 ization of credit, with government loans 

 to farmers, merchants, and working- 

 men, the advanced governmental stand 

 on the labor question, including the cre- 

 ation of a minister of labor with a seat 

 in the cabinet, the establishment of gov- 

 ernment life and accident insurance and 

 old-age pensions, government owner- 

 ship of patents, made available to the 

 5 



public at reasonable rates, government 

 operation of coal mines, national own- 

 ership of railroads and telegraphs, mu- 

 nicipal ownership of water, gas, elec- 

 tric, and street car plants, equal suf- 

 frage, direct nominations, hearing and 

 questioning of candidates, voting by 

 mail, and, in general, the inauguration 

 of a political system which makes the 

 boss and machine impossible, and gov- 

 ernment by the people not "an irides- 

 cent dream," but a fact. 



In view of the advanced ground 

 taken by New Zealand on such ques- 

 tions as are above indicated, we are pre- 

 pared for the statement that that coun- 

 try maintains a progressive state forest 

 policy. Says Prof. Frank Parsons 

 in his book, "The Story of New 

 Zealand" (p. 143) : 



"The splendid forests of New Zealand 

 had for years been subject to a rapid 

 process of destruction by forest fires 

 and commercial vandalism. It became 

 evident that the supply of timber would 

 not last many decades if something 

 were not done to check the wastes and 

 losses. Moreover, the rainfall and 

 river sources of wide districts were be- 

 ing seriously affected ; and in many 

 places on the mountain slopes where 

 the soil was thin the removal of the 

 trees left it at the mercy of the storms, 

 which washed it away, leaving the 

 rocks entirely bare, undoing in a few 

 months the whole results of nature's 

 soil-building carried on through ages 

 of the past. 



"To stop these evils a forest act was 

 passed in 1885 to provide for the res- 

 ervation of state forests and the con- 

 trol and management of them by the 

 government." 



The preamble of the act recites that 

 it is "expedient to make provision for 

 setting apart areas of forest land in 

 New Zealand as state forests, and to 

 subject the same to skilled manage- 

 ment and proper control in order 

 thereby to prevent undue waste of tim- 

 ber, and to provide timber for future 

 industrial purposes, and to provide for 

 the proper conservation of climatic con- 

 ditions by the preservation of forest 

 growth in elevated situations." 



