COMMITTEE ON COLONIAL BOTANISTS REPORT. 5 



Wednesday, 16th August, 1865. 



PRESENT : 



Mr. VIGNE (Chairman), 



Mr. Wicht, Mr. Pole. 



Mr. Busk, 



Dr. Brown further examined, 



32. Chairman.] You have stated to the committee that nr.j.a Brawn 

 considerable diminution has taken place of late years in the Aug. IG, ises. 

 extent of the colonial forests. Have you any suggestions to 



oifer in regard to their preservation, or the planting of 

 trees ? I reported fully upon the subject last year. Queries 

 have been issued from the Colonial Office relative to state- 

 ments in that report, and all of the replies received to these 

 queries, together with a great deal of additional information, 

 have come into my possession, any portion of which I am 

 prepared to communicate to the committee. 



33. You referred to a letter to the Colonial Secretary. 

 Will you state the nature of that report? In that report I 

 gave illustrations of meteorological laws regulating evapora- 

 tion, adduced a number of facts to show that the destruction 

 of trees desiccated the climate, reported a number of facts 

 illustrative of the waste of timber going on in the forests of 

 the Colony, and suggested certain measures with a view of 

 arresting this destruction of forest timber, and replacing, 

 by plantations, the trees destroyed. 



34 You state that you have received replies to the 

 queries issued from the Colonial Office. Will you state the 

 nature of these replies? One of the queries was, "To 

 what extent are your observations in accordance with those 

 reported by the Colonial Botanist?" Most of the gentlemen 

 furnishing replies confirm all I alleged, more especially in 

 regard to the great destruction of timber going on in the 

 forest, and the probability of this increasing the aridity of 

 the climate, 



35. From whom were those replies received ? The cir- 

 cular was addressed to all civil commissioners of districts in 

 which there are forests ; to all conservators of forests ; to 

 all forest rangers ; and to upwards of forty gentlemen residing 

 in different parts of the Colony of whom it was supposed 



