TEANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 311 



fall, and not the cause of it? " and confesses that he feels no 

 kind of certainty one way or the other, but takes comfort from 

 the fact that Dr. Brundis, the Inspector-General of Forests in 

 India, — no mean authority, — and doubtless many others, have 

 like himself failed to make up their minds about the matter. 

 He even avers "that statistics in this colony tend to prove 

 that the rainfall has increased at stations in the neighbourhood 

 of which woods have been extensively cut down." 



Now, I firmly believe that this attitude of mind on the 

 important subject in question is precisely that of many thought- 

 ful people. They feel that there is an intimate relationship 

 between rainfall and forest, but are not prepared to assign 

 pi'iority of existence to either. Nevertheless the usual opinion 

 originated by those who clearly perceive the beneficial effects 

 of an arboreous covering, and the evils resulting from the 

 wanton destruction of such covering, in most newly-settled 

 countries, has been that rainfall will be very seriously affected 

 by deforestation and largely increased by reforestation. To 

 this dictum quite lately more than one authority much more 

 competent to form an opinion than myself has demurred. I 

 follow on the same side, and venture to discuss the question 

 in a somewhat novel fashion. 



I have prepared, and have now before me, two maps of 

 New Zealand — the one showing approximately by degrees of 

 shading the average annual rainfall in the different parts of 

 the colony ; the other showing, also approximately, from the 

 information supplied by Captain Walker while acting as Con- 

 servator of Forests in New Zealand (Report on Forests : C.-3, 

 Appendix to Journals H. of E., 1877), where the great forest- 

 areas principally lie, and the comparative extent of them. 

 The similarity between the two maps is evident at a glance, 

 so much so indeed that, with some trifling exceptions, prin- 

 cipally on the eastern side of the Islands — in Cook County 

 and the Province of Marlborough, e.g. — it may be said that 

 the more darkly shaded areas in the two are nearly coincident ; 

 and it is impossible to do otherwise than conclude that between 

 rainfall and forest there is, in some way, the connection of 

 cause and effect. 



To construct, even roughly, a map of the forests of New 

 Zealand is no easy matter : no authentic map of that character 

 is in existence ; and the materials for constructing one, as 

 supplied by the source already indicated, are neither precise 

 nor adequate. There is pretty accurate information as to the 

 amount of forest which was in the hands of our Government 

 in 1877 ; but at that time very much had already been 

 alienated, especially of kauri, totara, and other commercially 

 valuable timber, and of course a large quantity still remained 

 in the possession of the Natives. 



