Xxxviil Appendix. 
Without going so far as Mr. Hunter, and estimating the annual increase 
in yield of wheat at eight bushels, which at five shillings per bushel would re- 
present two million a year more of wealth without any extra expenditure— 
minute calculations which unsupported by facts I consider are likely to 
damage rather than improve an otherwise good case—I cordially agree with 
the editor, who sums up the argument by stating that “it is however 
possible for each colony to conserve local advantages which it owes to 
nature, and in this eategory we place not only forests, but water of every 
size and form. * * Let the Government not attempt to shirk its duty by 
handiug over to local bodies the management of forests, but let it grapple 
with the whole question in a statesmanlike manner, and earn, even though 
it may not immediately win it, the gratitude and respect of the people whose 
interests have been entrusted to its care." 
Our time to-night will have been spent to little advantage if you do not 
feel that this colony is eminently one possessing great “local advantages 
which it owes to nature,” in the shape of forests and supply of water. 
These advantages it is our duty, as well as our interest, to preserve ; and I 
think New Zealand is lucky in possessing statesmen like her late Premier, 
Sir Julius Vogel, who have looked ahead and seen the necessity of grappl- 
ing with the difficulty in time, that is before the damage has actually been 
done, and when the necessary measures can be applied, as I hope to show 
you to night, by a very small temporary outlay, securing not only immunity 
from the damage and destruction which have taken place elsewhere, but a 
considerable and steadily increasing forest revenue to the State. 
I do not think that any damage has as yet been done to the climate of 
New Zealand or its water supply by the clearing of forests ; indeed, I have 
little doubt that the climate has in many instances been ameliorated by it. 
Some of my friends tell me that this City of Wellington is a case in point. 
But they also tell me that there is much less water in the streams which 
run down from the surrounding hills than formerly. I know naturally 
nothing as to the facts myself, and am inclined, as already stated, to take . 
such expressions of opinion with a very large grain of salt. In the present 
case the opinions are exactly in unison with what I should have surmised 
from what I see; and I take the drying up of the streams as a warning to 
be wise in time, and not to kill the goose, i.e., the forest, which lays the 
golden eggs, i.e., moisture and water supply—a burning question, by the 
way, I believe, at the present time in Wellington. I may say the same of 
the West Coast of the South Island, from which I have just returned. No 
damage has as yet been done, rather the contrary; but ascending the 
narrow vallies of the Grey and Buller Rivers and their iributaries, walled 
in by steep forest-clad hills, a feeling almost of dread constantly presented itself 
