164 EDITORIAL NOTES. [Jan. 



PCTBLic jSTational Paeks. — The colonial governments appear astir 

 on this question not yet mooted by oiu- home administration. Very 

 shortly an area of 3G,000 acres in the Illawara district, with a 

 IVontage of seven and a half miles to the Pacific Ocean, will be 

 opened as a recreation-ground for Xew South Wales. Streams of 

 cool water run through this tableland, in which again are splendid 

 miniature Australian arboretums, containing cabbage trees and baugalo 

 palms, tree ferns as well as blackbutt, woolybutt, turpentine, and 

 other noble forest trees. The Canadian Government seem determined 

 not to be outdone by that of Xew South Wales ; for it is proposed 

 to found a similar domain for public recreation around the Niagara 

 Falls. Why should not there be two such parks, where experimental 

 forestry might enter into the design, respectively in the north of 

 Encrlaud and Scotland ? 



Where does all the PiAIX go ? is a question now being some- 

 what hotly disputed by the scientists of Xew South Wales. The 

 discussion is interesting to foresters, because the great c^uestion 

 underlying it, which is simply the artificial irrigation of the vast 

 sandy plains of Australia, involves their art, as well as that of the 

 civil engineer. In proof of this, let the reader turn to Dr. Brown's 

 lecture on the aridity of Spain given in last number. ]\Ir. Eussell, 

 astronomer-royal, lately showed before the Eoyal Society of Xew 

 South Wales, that whereas 30 per cent, of the rainfall should get 

 into the Darling river, only 10 to 15 per cent, did ; but on the 

 other hand, Avhat were really subterranean rivers had been tapped, 

 in bores pierced along its basin. There appear to be no lack of 

 artesian wells. In one the yield was 9600 gallons per hour ; near it 

 the ground sounds quite hollow for 100 acres, and there are holes 

 in it^ 3 or 4 feet deep, at the bottom of which you can see and hear 

 the water rushing on in its subterranean course. It appears to us 

 that judicious tree-planting would do much to modify this extra- 

 ordinary state of things. Why should the Colonial Legislature 

 not face a question involving the peopling of the great island con- 

 tinent '. 



Ceylox. — As indicated by the Tropiml AgrlcidUi'rist,\.h& cpiestiou 

 of forest conservation may have already been discussed by the local 

 Legislature. As it is in prosperous times such problems receive the 

 fairest discussion, we are glad to learn that Ceylon jjlanters are 

 again taking heart, specially because tea-planting promises to be a 

 very prosperous industry. 



