32 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 will 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 wiU, 

 in all probabiHty, be of the most disastrous nature to the ensuing generation. 



Art. III. — Notes on Port Nicholson and the Natives in 1839. 

 By Major Charles Heaphy, V.C. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 11th October, 1879.1 



Having 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, 1889, 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 XDrosperous, 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 readmess, and nume- 



