ON THE CONSERVATION OF FORESTS IN NEW ZEALAND. 39 
it evidently was in times comparatively recent,—so recent apparently 
that both man and the Moa inhabited the country, which was, with 
hee and local exceptions, generally and richly forest-cl 
. That the remnants of the primitive forest still xe are 
ee disappearing under the following combination of destructive 
agencies ;— 
l. Natural. 
A. Current geological changes. 
1. Oscillations in the level of the land: especially its local sub- 
sidence. 
2. Encroachment by sea-sand on the coasts. 
3. Erosion of coasts by the sea; of the margins of lakes ; of the 
banks of rivers and streams, especially during storms and 
floods of winter. 
B. Avalanches ; glaciers; windstorms; lightning; winter torrents 
and floo di 
C. Wild animals (birds, insects, etc.) eating bark ; tearing up sap- 
ings; devouring seeds or seedlings; burrowing under the 
bark or within the timber. 
2. Artificial. 
A. Indirect or accidental. 
1. Cattle and wild pigs. 
2. Bush fi 
B. Direct or deliberate 
. Bush-clearing HE agricultural purposes. 
2. Timber-cutting for building. 
fencing. 
k fuel. 
3. Track-making for man or cattle. 
III. That this destruction, which is more or less necessary or inevi- 
table, is materially hastened by the reckless and improvident, or illegal 
and culpable timber-felling, both of colonists and natives: more espe- 
cially as regards the former, by— 
1. The abuse of the wood-cutting licence. 
And as regards the latter— 
2. Deliberate destruction in connection with their superstitions. 
IV. That with this improvident and unnecessary destruction co- 
» 2) 
