Wai.sii. — Effects of l)isapj)e(tr<nic(- of the New Zeftlaitd Biixli. 445 



in a park or garden. A selection of ferns and orchidaceous plants can be 

 nursed up under artificial shelter, but who can restore what is at once the 

 park, the garden, and the conservatory ? Untold ages have been required 

 to produce it ; and once it has gone it has gone for ever. We may make 

 fair imitations of an English forest or an Enghsh coppice. With our genial 

 cHmate we may introduce variety by means of subtropical plants ; but 

 by no combination of elements, however beautiful in themselves, can we 

 ever hope to reproduce the peculiar charm of the New Zealand bush. 



Extent of Damage. 



In the foregoing pages I have given a few typical instances of the damage 

 that has already resulted on the removal of the forest. The facts I have 

 adduced have either come under my own observation or are those of whose 

 authenticity there can be no question. But the damage is going on all 

 the time, and over the whole of the Dominion ; and, as every year there 

 is a wider area of cleared land for the elements to work on, it must every 

 year be more widely spread. The climatic changes, the growing intensity 

 of the winds, and the more marked extremes of temperature, might pass 

 unnoticed, or might be accounted for by som.e imaginary meteorological 

 disturbance ; but no one who travels a few miles outside of our cities can 

 be blind to the changes that are taking place on the surface of the country. 

 In the papa land to the south-west of the Main Trunk line, and extending 

 to Taranaki and Wanganui, very serious damage from landslips is every- 

 where following the advance of settlement. The same thing is occurring 

 to an alarming extent in the soft limestone country along the east coast 

 to the north of Gisborne ; while in the mountainous district inland of 

 the East Cape every hillside is scored with landslips, some of which are 

 hundreds of feet high and many acres in extent. The same thing is taking 

 place in the old kauri -workings on the Coromandel Peninsula, and in many 

 other places too numerous to mention. Everywhere from Mangonui to the 

 Bluff, more or less, according to the nature of the country, the land is 

 sUpping away, the surface is being eroded, and the rivers silting up at a 

 rate and on a scale that no one would have believed possible a few years 

 ago. 



The Future. 



Looking forward to the future, one is tempted to ask whether there 

 is any prospect that the evil will ever be checked. ReafEoresting and 

 the protection of river-banks are, of course, the two remedies that are most 

 needed. The former is being imdertaken to a certain extent by the Go- 

 vernment ; but the area on which it is possible to operate is quite insigni- 

 ficant compared to the extent of land that is suffering ; while, in regard to 

 the protection of river-banks, it is an art that is not yet understood in this 

 country, and one which, moreover, would be far ^o costly to undertake 

 on any general scale, though a good deal might be done in special cases, 

 such as that of the Ohinemuri River and the Lower Waihou. Speaking 

 broadly, the trouble must go on and increase in the open country. There 

 is no finaUty about a landslip, and for many years to come the rivers will 

 wander at will over the alluvial plains, while erosion and silting will go on 

 as before. Neither is there any hope that the residue of the standing forest 

 will remain intact. Land must be provided for settlement, and so long 

 as there is a demand for timber the trees -will be cut down ; and once the 

 timber-trees have been removed the rest of the bush, as already shown, 



