Watxrer.—On State Forestry. XXXİX 
to my mind as to what would be the result if these forests were ever to be 
cleared away without: great discrimination and the retention of extensive 
reserves. Mr. Kirk was with me, and can tell you that the same thought 
presented itself to both of us almost simultaneously. These forests are of 
little commercial value, but I am certain we cannot be too careful of how 
they are felled and treated. Once gone, farewell to the smiling fields in the 
vallies below and abundant pasture on the lower slopes of the hills. There. 
is but little soil or vegetable deposit on the top of the shingle—I do not 
know the exact geological term for it—of which those mountains are mainly 
composed. Remove the forest, and the coating of humus, or vegetable 
mould, will soon follow, perhaps after it has afforded pasturage for a few 
Sheep for a few years, and the after-results will be those which I have 
attempted briefly to depict in the case of the French Alps and Pyrenees. 
The same argument, of course, holds good more or less with regard to 
all the forest-clad mountain ranges in New Zealand. I say nothing of the 
actual rainfall, although the facts, as I have seen and compared them in 
this colony, almost convince me that forests have a direct influence even on 
the amount of that; for all along the East Coast, with bare plains and 
comparatively little timber on the hills, we have but a scanty rainfall even 
in the immediate neighbourhood of the hills themselves, whereas in the 
densely-wooded West Coast we have a rainfall greatly in excess of the 
average. The forests may, as has been asserted elsewhere, be the effect 
and not the cause; but I must say I, for one, see nothing to lead us to that 
belief, as, if it be so, why should not rain have fallen and forests been 
created on the eastern slopes of the mountains, on which the clouds, laden 
with moisture from the Pacific, first impinge? Be this as it may, I have 
no hesitation in advocating the careful conservancy of the forests on the 
Western slopes of the mountains, which may be called the backbone of 
New Zealand ; and I have no doubt that the formation of plantations in 
Otago, Canterbury, and eventually probably in some of the Eastern dis- 
tricts of the North Island, will go a great way to ameliorating the climate, 
breaking the force of the wind—an advantage of planting which has almost 
escaped my notice, but which is matter of great importance, especially 
when the wind is a hot one, as it sometimes is in the Canterbury Plains, 
and decreasing excessive evaporation and consequent dryness of soil. In 
short, I am well assured that, by the initiation and systematic treatment of 
forest conservancy and planting, New Zealand may secure her proud pre- 
eminence as the best watered and probably most salubrious climate in the 
Southern Hemisphere, if not in the world. 
Let us now consider the financial aspect of the question. The question 
of direct financial gain, or extracting a revenue from the forests by the 
