444 Transactions. 



Though varying very much according to circumstances, the imderground 

 supply is perhaps very much greater than is generally supposed. In per- 

 meable soil, especially if the watershed be fairly level and the surface 

 protected by bush, there is a constant percolation into the ground, and, 

 except in the case of a very heavy rainfall, by far the greater portion of 

 the water goes through the earth before it finds its way to the river-bed. 

 Even in hard rocks, underground streams, starting originally in some fault 

 or fissure, wear for themselves well-defined channels, when, after running 

 sometimes quite considerable distances, they emerge in the form of springs 

 about the head-waters and sides of the creeks. It is by this underground 

 supply that the average volume of a river is maintained. But if the bush 

 has been removed, and nothing but a hard, bare surface remains on the 

 watershed, then the rain, as before mentioned, runs off at once ; and, 

 unless the ground be of a very porous nature, there is no water left to feed 

 the underground supply, and the river is starved. Unfortunately, in many 

 extensive forest-areas the land is of clay or " papa rock," both of which 

 are almost impervious to water. Little or no percolation can take place, 

 and practically the whole of the rain runs off as soon as it falls on the 

 ground. The consequence is that in wet weather we have a succession 

 of floods, and in dry weather a dwindling streamlet, or even an empty 

 watercourse. On a small scale this sequence of cause and effect may be 

 seen in the dry creeks that bring such trouble to the grazier and the dairy- 

 farmer ; Avhile on a larger scale it may be witnessed in some of the small 

 river-ports, where for weeks- — or it may be for months — there is not suffi- 

 cient water to clear the channel on the bar. 



(4.) Permanent Loss of the Bush. 



It may seem rather a superfluous statement to make, that one of the 

 results of the removal of the forest is the loss of the bush. But it is well, 

 perhaps, to consider, before it is too late, how much the statement involves. 

 The European and American forestry regulations, so often quoted, which 

 provide for the judicious thinning-out and the gradual removal of the full- 

 grown trees, and so on, cannot be made to apply to the forest of this 

 country. No single tree once removed from the New Zealand bush can 

 ever be replaced, while to attempt to " thin out " the New Zealand bush 

 is to condemn it to immediate destruction. From a scenic point of view 

 the loss also is incalculable. The New Zealand bush has grown up under 

 conditions which, once removed, can never be restored. Favoured by 

 special climatic conditions, undisturbed by the presence of any ruminating 

 animal, the bush, with its patriarchal trees, its wealth of underwood, its 

 profusion and variety of epiphytes and climbing plants, has attained a 

 richness and beauty probably unequalled, and certainly not surpassed, 

 in any part of the world. In a block of kauri in the Auckland Museum, 

 measuring 8 ft. in diameter, the Curator, Mr. Cheeseman, counted no less 

 than 455 concentric rings, each ring representing a year's growth. But 

 the tree from which the block was cut Avas only a sapling compared wnih the 

 giants of 10 ft., 12 ft., or 14 ft. which have been sacrificed for milling-timber. 

 Thousands of years mi;st have been required for their growth. How many 

 thousands more it must have taken to evolve the conditions necessary 

 for their existence it would be vain to attempt to guess. With a fair 

 amount of care a specimen tree may be grown away from its natural sur- 

 roundings. A kauri, a rimu, or a totara will make a very handsome object 



