BY J. W. BEATTIE. 35' 



restrictive precautions, would undoubtedly mean the 

 " beginning of the end " to the beauty of the Gordon. 

 Surely we must see to it that such a menace should not 

 for one moment be allowed. 



Some attempt at protection has, I believe, already 

 been made, the Government having reserved a strip of 

 land five chains wide on each side of the river, for a dis- 

 tance of i6 miles from the entrance at Macquarie Har- 

 bour. This is totally inadequate to fully protect the 

 river from the depredations of the timber hunter. The 

 area must be greatly extended, and my proposition is 

 that all the hillsides immediately fronting the river 

 should be reserved, allowing five or ten chains on the 

 flat parts of the river, reservation to commence from the 

 Macquarie Harbour entrance, and end at one mile be- 

 yond the Franklin River Junction, Which would give a 

 total length of 25 miles, and would effectually protect 

 the whole of the beautiful scenery of the river. This re- 

 .&ervation cannot interfere with the pine industry, no 

 pine being available now on the banks of the river, nor 

 would tiniDer-getters suffer inconvenience, as their 

 sphere of labour would lie outside the reserve. 



The economic value of this reserve to the state, apart 

 from aesthetic or scientific considerations, may be re- 

 garded as practically " nil," the land being worthless for 

 set'lement or agriculture, and no minerals have, I be- 

 lieve, been discovered within the proposed area of pro- 

 tection, so that, under such circumstances, the Govern- 

 ment lose nothing by its reservation, but, on the con- 

 trary, would gain, now and in future years, the approba- 

 tion and esteem of all right-thinking people of this state. 



The preservation of scenery in other parts of the 

 v^^orld is receiving the greatest attention, and even in 

 England a society has been formed for the preservation 

 of Swiss scenery. How much greater is the necessity 

 existent in a country like Tasmania, relying so much 

 upon her tourist traffic, to preserve by every means 

 within lier power attractions without which such a traffic 

 would dimhiish rather than increase, to the serious loss 

 of the state. One hesitates to put this selfish aspect of 

 the case before a learned society, but " necessity knows 

 no law," and, after all, a public awakening may be better 

 aroused by a proposition in this form rather than from 

 a more scientific standpoint. 



