9 



lowing from them — translations of documents and enact- 

 ments, showing what legislative and executive measures 

 have been taken by the Government of France in connec- 

 tion with reboisement as a remedial application against 

 destructive torrents — and details in regard to the past, 

 present, and prospective aspects of the work, 



ExTEACT FROM Phepace.— ' lu a treatise on the Hydrology of South 

 Africa I have given details of destructive ejects of torrential floods at 

 the Cape of Good Hope and Natal, and referred to the measures adopted 

 in France to prevent the occurrence of similar disastrous floods there. 

 The attention of the Legislative Assembly at the Cape of Good Hope 

 was, last year, called by one of the. members of the Assembly to the 

 importance of planting trees on unproductive Crown lands. On learn- 

 ing that this had been done I addressed to the editor of the Gape Argus 

 a communication, of which the following is a copy : — 



' " I have before me details of destructive effects of torrents which have 

 occurred since I left the Colony in the beginning of 1867. Towards the 

 close of that year there occurred one, the damage occasioned by which 

 to roads and to house property at Port Elizabeth alone was estimated at 

 from £25,000 to £30,000. Within a year thereafter a similar destructive 

 torrent occurred at Natal, in regard to which it was stated that the 

 damage done to public works alone was estimated at £50,000, while the 

 loss to private persons was estimated variously from £50,000 to £100,000. 

 In the following year, 1869, a torrent in the Western Province occa- 

 sioned the fall of a railway bridge, which issued in loss of life and loss 

 of property, and personal injuries, for one case alone of which the rail- 

 way proprietors were prosecuted for damages amounting to £5000. In 

 Beaufort West a deluge of rain washed down the dam, and the next 

 year the town was flooded by the waters of the Gamko ; and the next 

 year, 1871, Victoria West was visited with a similar disaster. Such are 

 the sums and the damages with which we have to deal in connection 

 with this question, as it afiects the case ; and these are only the most 

 remarkable torrents of the several years referred to. I have spoken of 

 millions of francs being spent on riboisement in France, and some may 

 be ready to cry out, ' Nothing like such an expenditure can be under- 

 taken at the Cape ! ' Perhaps not ; but the losses occasioned by the 

 torrents seem to amount at present to about a million of francs in the 

 year. This falls in a great measare on individuals, that would fall on 

 the community ; and the community in return would benefit by water 

 retained to fertilize the earth, instead of being lost in the sea, and by 

 firewood and timber being grown where now there is none. These are 

 facts well deserving of consideration in the discussion of the expediency 

 of planting Crown lands with trees." 



' Towards the close of last year, 1874, still more disastrous effects 

 were produced by torrential floods. According to the report given by 

 one of the Colonial newspapers, the damages done could not be esti- 

 mated at much less than £300,000. According to the report given by 



