184 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



preventing unnecessary destruction of trees other than kauri, most of which 

 will yet prove of great economic value, and all of which are invaluable on 

 climate account, with the object of preserving the young growing timber of 

 all kinds, also for the purpose of closing up all forests out of which 

 the larger kauri trees have been cut, so that the kauri may have a chance to 

 grow undisturbed in its native habitat. I am convinced, if even this latter 

 precaution be taken, that millions of kauri trees, from the tiny sapling to 

 trees of, say, two feet in diameter, will be preserved for the use and ornament 



of the country for centuries to come. 



Under the present system we are destroying our noble forests, the growth 

 of centuries, and to this day (except by Mr Vogel's Forests Act) we have not 

 made even an effort to stay the reckless tide of havoc and ruin which is 

 sweeping them away. "We are neither conserving the old nor creating new. 

 If a squatter, having come into possession of a rare, valuable, and unrivalled 

 flock of sheep, and, without taking a single step to perpetuate the famous 

 breed, should proceed to boil down the entire flock, young and old, he would 

 be denounced as a lunatic or a public enemy, or both. Yet we are now busily 

 engaged in perpetrating a similar or worse enormity. 



Acquired rights must of course be respected, nor will it be wise 

 needlessly to check the timber industry, for there is undoubtedly an immense 

 quantity of ripe kauri trees representing a large value in money, which are 

 now at their prime, and which are being converted into marketable timber to 

 the great advantage of the colony. At the same time there cannot be a 

 doubt that this can be done without allowing the heads and branches of the 

 trees to fall and lay pellmell amongst the young growing trees. The rough 

 and ready system at present in full swing bruises and crushes down the young 

 trees and provides fuel to destroy the whole forests, and so neutralises the 

 efforts nature is making to redress the havoc and ruin we are so thoughtlessly 



causing . 



Forestry as practised in Europe can only apply to the cutting of timber in 

 this colony in its general principles, because our trees are very much larger 

 than those cut down in European forests. This will be evident from the fact 

 that kauri and many other forest trees range from 3 feet to 9 or 10 feet in 

 diameter, and grow on the sides of valleys or gullies more or less precipitous. 

 It is not, indeed, easy to see how trees of these diameters, frequently running 

 up to 70 or 80 feet without a branch, and crowned with noble and spreading 

 heads, can be felled without inflicting great damage upon the surrounding 

 young timber. As I have already observed, acquired timber rights must be 

 respected, and it may probably be only in kauri forests, acquired or to be 

 acquired by Government, that such conditions can be imposed as will cause as 

 little damage as possible. All such forests may and ought to be effectually 



