298 CONSERVATION 



Professor Parsons continues : terests connected with them, bear their 



"The law authorized the Commis- full share in producing and maintain- 

 sioner of State Forests to establish ing this prosperity; and it should re- 

 schools of forestry and agriculture, quire no prophetic vision to foresee the 

 grant licenses to cut timber, and take advantage which might accrue to the 

 measures to preserve and improve the United States or, in fact, to any other 

 forests of the colony. nation which, in the midst of the pres- 



"The government in recent years has ent forest holocaust, would conserve its 



shown an ever-increasing interest in stock, and deliberately and systematic- 



the preservation of the forests and the ally set about producing an additional 



planting of trees. In the financial stock for its own future use, and for 



statement presented to parliament, July, sale to other peoples when, as Secre- 



1902, the acting Premier said : tary Wilson predicts, trees shall have 



become "as scarce as diamonds." 



'In pursuance of the decision of the gov- 

 ernment that the remaining areas of forest M & & 

 in the colony should be conserved and dealt 



with in a systematic manner the government Forest Taxation Again 

 nave under consideration the whole ques- 

 tion of how best to deal with ihis imuor- _ T T^T^ 



tant matter. Special attention is being given Banquo s ghost, the question 



to the reservation of all forest upon the 1 ' of forest taxation will not down. 



thTmah TiTrfce 1 " 8 ?^ , table "K nds to insure We know that things can be taxed out 



grad^rdistribution "TlliSall^^rotel of existence = that many things, as win- 



tion of the surface of the country from dows in Old France, date trees in 



degradation, and the prevention of the de- Egypt, and dogs and saloons with us, 



He r tp C rin r^,-o f ^J" ^ ^^f J their have thus been eliminated. We know 



deterioration by the deposit of detritus, ,1 r , , 



whilst maintaining the climatic equilibrium, that forests ar e being taxed out of ex- 

 protecting the native flora and fauna, and istence in this country every day. And 

 doing all that is possible to preserve the we know that the irrational system of 

 beautitul scenery for which the colonv is i- 1-1 ^ rr 

 famed. On a smaller Lie, scenic effect is taxatlon which produces this effect 

 being attended to by the reservation of forest must " lve P la ce to a rational system, 

 lands in gorges and on river banks and the May the day of transition hasten ! 

 higher portions of the colony, so as to pre- T he National Conservation Commis- 

 serve all places of natural beauty which , , , , 

 serve to make New Zealand attractive, espe- Slon 1 ? as taken U P . the question of forest 

 cially from a tourist point of view. * * * taxation. It insists that more equi- 

 The government also have in contemplation table methods of taxing forest lands 

 a large expansion of tree-planting opera- s h ou ld be introduced to facilitate the 

 tions; and it is fortunate that we possess 



a large area of land in the central district adoption of such methods it dis- 



of the North Island which, though not well tinguishes sharply between the land and 



adapted for agricultural and pastoral pur- the crop growing upon the land. Each 

 poses, is believed, as the result of trial r ,, , , J , - 



plantations, to be well suited to the growth f these * wotlld tax '> each ^ would 



of vast forests of specially selected and val- tax upon its value. The land it would 



uable trees.' tax annually; the crop but once. The 



value of the land it would determine 



A letter in American Industries, pub- by the value of its annual timber procl- 



lished three years later than the book U ct. The value of the timber would, of 



above quoted (May i, 1907), says, course, be determined by its market 



among other things : "New Zealand is price. 



having a period of great prosperity The time recommended for taxing 



on account of the high prices it is the timber is the time of harvesting it. 



receiving for its principal articles of This is the one and only time when it 



export. Agriculture and mining are brings actual revenue to its owner ; 



the pursuits which are turning in the this is the time when the tax can easily 



money." We may well believe that the be paid. By collecting the tax at this 



conservation of the forests, and the in- time only the owner is not driven, as 



