Firth. — On Forest Culture, 183 



1. Forest conservation. 



2. Forest creation and culture. 



My remarks on forest conservation will apply chiefly to the Province of 

 Auckland, there being doubtless many gentlemen in other divisions of the 

 colony who will be able to do more justice in their respective districts to the 

 subject than I can. For though, with the exception of the kauri {Bammara 

 australis) and puriri {Vitex littoralis), and one or two other trees, there is a 

 singular uniformity in the character of the arboreal vegetation of the entire 

 colony, yet there is a wide difference in the development of many individual 

 trees. For instance the kahikatea in the extreme north is a soft, woolly, and 

 worthless timber, but becomes, the further south we travel, a more valuable 

 wood. Again the white and red birches in the north are not timber trees, 

 whilst in the south, I understand, they develope into large and valuable trees, 

 suitable for a variety of purposes. 



Though I do not concur in the statements made in the papers recently laid 

 before the Assembly relating to the extent of the destruction of forests in the 

 north I readily admit that a most reckless and wanton destruction has taken 

 place, and is still going on at a constantly increasing ratio. Mr Yogel, in a 

 speech delivered in this city some months ago, pithily said that a man would 

 recklessly burn down a forest to light a pipe or boil a kettle. In truth our 

 magnificent forests of kauri are being ruthlessly destroyed. It is not so much 

 that noble kauri trees requiring 300 years to bring to their present perfection 

 of beauty, strength, and grandeur are every day being cut down to build 

 wooden houses, which will be rotten in 30 years, but it is the utter recklessness 

 displayed by saw-mill proprietors, bush contractors, and splitters which is 

 destroying our forests at a rate constantly increasing. In times not very far 

 back, probably not much more than a century ago, the whole of the fern- 

 covered plains of the North Island, north of a line from Whangaroa Harbour 

 to Tauranga, were covered with dense kauri and totara forests. Small 

 portions of these have been destroyed by the Maoris for cultivation, but fire 

 has been the chief agent in stripping our plains of trees. In exactly a 

 similar manner every patch of forest is still being attacked by fern fires, lit 

 by the carelessness of settlers and natives. From these causes the almost 

 total destruction of the forests of the North Island is but a question of time, 

 unless stringent measures are taken to conserve them. 



The kauri especially is doomed to extinction, except the young trees, 

 saplings, and seedlings are carefully preserved from injury by man, cattle, or 

 fire. Unquestionably Government ought not to sell for cultivation any forest 

 land j forest lands in the hands of natives ought to be purchased by 

 Government as quickly as possible. Lands over which saw-mill proprietors 

 have secured cutting rights ought also to be purchased with the view of 



