82 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
Dr. Hochstetter, in his valuable work on the geology and natural history 
of New Zealand, pointed out the fact that extensive districts which had 
formerly been covered with forests of kauri pine were, when he wrote, 
totally destitute of this most valuable of the forest trees, and that its exter- 
mination was progressing from year to year at such an alarming rate, that 
its final extinction was as certain as that of the natives themselves, only 
in a much shorter period of time. 
Such being the facts of the case, it is surely necessary that some steps 
be taken to preserve a portion of our forests, and to check the continually 
increasing destruction which is still being carried on; and it would appear 
to be not only expedient but absolutely necessary that the far-seeing views 
which were expressed on this subject by Sir Julius Vogel, in 1874, and 
which were—to create a department of ** Woods and Forests," and to enact 
forest laws, be carried out without delay. 
The most stringent measures wil now have to be resorted to for their 
conservation; a sum of money should be set apart annually for the purpose 
of planting and improving the State forests; every township in the colony 
should have its adjacent forest reserve; and every encouragement should 
be given to landowners towards the planting of trees on their farms and 
runs. 
Should this not be done, after the fashion of other and older countries, 
and should no steps be taken to conserve our forests, the consequences will, 
in all probability, be of the most disastrous nature to the ensuing generation. 
Art. III.— Notes on Port Nicholson and the Natives in 1839. 
By Mazor Cuartes Heapny, V.C. 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 11th October, 1879.] 
Havine been in Port Nicholson before the arrival of the settlers, I have put 
together the following notes on the physical aspect of the place, and the 
condition of the native inhabitants at that time. 
In September, 1839, when I arrived here in the ‘Tory,’ with the 
expedition to select a fitting site for the New Zealand Company’s first 
settlement, no ship had been in the harbour for a considerable time, pro- 
bably three or four years. The place lay out of the track of whaling ships, 
and there was but little flax-trading to be done at it. Large, and for a 
time prosperous, whaling-stations existed at Port Underwood, Tory Chan- 
nel, and Kapiti. The tide running past the heads on into those harbours, 
whale-ships lay at anchor there, with their boats in readiness, and nume- 
