TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 313 



■whatever of explaining it. In any case the figures are very 

 large, and clearly show that there is a vast area of forest still 

 left in the colony, which certainly deserves the credit that it 

 possesses of being, as regards arboreous vegetation, one of the 

 richest portions of the globe ; but the destruction that has gone 

 on since European settlement began must have been enormous 

 if we may judge from an estimate made by Sir J. Hector, and 

 quoted in the " EncyclopasdiaBritannica," to the effect that in 

 1830 there were probably 20,370,000 acres of forest in New 

 Zealand. That the area should have diminished by at least 

 one-third in less than fifty years shows the immediate neces- 

 sity of steps being taken towards forest-conservation. This, 

 however, by the way. 



The above figures, and the map drawn in accordance there- 

 with, show us pretty clearly that the great forest-areas in New 

 Zealand are on the western side of the Islands — on the u'csUrn 

 slopes — and, if they are below d.SOOft. in height, on the summits 

 of the mountain-chains. The densest forests, as far as the 

 North Island is concerned, would seem to be in the Taranaki 

 Province, of which more than four-fifths is forest-clad, and in 

 the Wellington Province (on the Tararua and Euahine Ranges) , 

 of which more than half the surface is so covered ; and, as 

 regards the South Island, the Province of Westland has pro- 

 portionately and absolutely the greatest amount of forest-area, 

 as much as three-fifths of its surface being forest. There are 

 vast areas of wooded country also at the extremities of the 

 colony — that is, in the Provinces of Auckland, and Otago and 

 Southland. In Nelson and Marlborough the mountain-ranges 

 are less elevated generally, and more broken, and the forest 

 spreads over the land extensively, but with large bare areas 

 intervening, so that the proportion of area forest-covered is not 

 so large as in the districts previously named. Canterbury and 

 Hawke's Bay, with their naked plains and comparatively 

 sparsely-timbered hills, and a very extensive bare area in the 

 interior of Otago, are absolutely and relatively the poorest in 

 forest of all the provinces, and these are precisely the areas 

 which are most subject to warm noi'th- westers and have least 

 rainfall, being most protected by mountain -chains against the 

 prevalent rain-brmging or equatorial winds. 



Similarly, a rainfall map prepared on the basis of authentic 

 statistics shows that the greatest rainfall in New Zealand 

 occurs on the western slopes of the Southern Alps and the 

 mountain-ranges in Taranaki ; and, generally speaking, the 

 colony has its heaviest precipitation on its western side — as so 

 frequently occurs elsewhere in corresponding latitudes — and 

 there is less and less as the eastern shores are approached. 

 Heavy rains also occur over the extreme northern and southern 

 areas ; and local circumstances bring about exceptionally-heavy 



