126 ON THE TIMBER SUPPLY OF AUSTRALIA. 



Land Board, New Zealand : " It is of the utmost importance to 

 the community to have the existing forests protected from the 

 reckless extravagance which is so prevalent in this province. If 

 prompt measures be not taken all the sound timber will, in the 

 course of a few years, be entirely destroyed, and the consequence 

 will be a sudden rise in the price of that material. The public are 

 admitted into the forests of the country simply by paying a small 

 licence fee. While this is the case, no regulations, however rigor- 

 ous, and no staff of officials, however numerous and zealous, can 

 control the wasteful destruction. Young trees as well as matured 

 ones are cut at 2, and in many instances 3 feet from the root. 

 Timber that could be profitably used in the construction of a rail- 

 way bridge or of the most refined piece of architecture, is cut down 

 for fuel or some temporary construction. A method must be 

 adopted whereby the person who fells timber will have an interest 

 in using it economically, and the public be supplied through a less 

 extravagant system." He suggests : (1.) " That the public be ex- 

 cluded from the Crown forests ; (2.) That the demand for timber 

 be supplied by selling at auction annually, or at any other time 

 that might be deemed expedient or necessary, such quantities of 

 growing timber as the state of the market might require for local 

 or outside consumption." These suggestions seem rational. We 

 ought to be guided by the principle, that we should no more than 

 absolutely necessary curtail the usefulness of our forests to our 

 farmers and the colonists generally, but at the same time prevent 

 unnecessary waste. No farmer will ever consider the interests of 

 posterity or any climatic consideration, however important, of any 

 moment as compared with his present convenience — that of obtain- 

 ing posts and rails or timber for building purposes or firewood, and a 

 person who splits for sale still less so. Such considerations must 

 come from the Government or from the Forest Department as 

 soon as we have it. It is quite true that even on their own land 

 farmers destroy frequently too much valuable timber, as being im- 

 pediments to the plough or reaping-machine, as expressed in the 

 lines of an American poet, Mr J. R. Lowell : 



" This tree, spared 

 I know not by what grace — for in the blood 

 Of our New World subduers, lingers yet 

 Hereditary feud with trees, they being 

 (They and the red man most) our fathers' foes." 



I recollect only too well how many thousands — no, millions — of 



