33 
where stream protection is unnecessary. The water-bearing for- 
est is far and awiay the most important both in area and in 
economic value. Under our sub-tropical conditions, with heavy^ 
precipitation and with our steep, short watersheds a forest cover 
permanently maintained is an absolutely essential need in provid- 
ing an assured supply of water for irrigation, for power develop- 
ment and for other economic uses. Over by far the greater part 
of the forest areas of the Territory the forest problems are those 
of water conservation, pure and simple, for where there is water 
to be protected the value of our local forest rests first, foremost 
and all the time on the influence it exerts as a protective cover. 
For this reason it is right and proper that the forest cover in the 
water-bearing forests be kept intact and that these forests be 
permanently maintained, strictly as protection forests. 
But this in no way interferes with the fact that the other main 
class — the “commercial forest’' — may properly be managed in a 
quite different w,ay. The areas termed “commercial forest” are 
found in those districts where because of their recent geological 
formation there are not and cannot be permanently running 
streams. Here the value of the forest rests in the wood and tim- 
ber it can produce. The forests in the District of Puna are 
typically and essentially of the commercial class. In that district 
rock and soil are incredibly porous. There simply are no streams 
to protect. Consequently there is no good reason why when the 
right time comes ,the government should not apply its policy of 
putting the forest to use ; in this case by making it yield wood and 
timber. The question to he decided now is w'hether or not the 
present is the right time at which to put this policy into operation. 
One other point of importance is tO' be considered here, the 
possible influence of the Puna, forest on the local climate. From 
its position Puna is naturally a district enjoying considerable 
precipitation, sufficient at any rate for the production of sugar 
cane without irrigation. But lest the objection be raised that the 
cutting off of 10,000 to 12,000 acres of forest would affect the 
■rainfall, I desire to go on record that whatever may be true else- 
where in the Territory (and I have previously stated my position 
at length* in regard to this matter), in my judgment the influ- 
ence on the rainfall of the district exerted by that portion of the 
Puna forest which it is proposed to cut is not of sufficient practical 
importance to need to be considered. 
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 
The general policy of the Territorial Government in regard to 
the utilization of the forests of the commercial class has been set 
* Especially in an article entitled, “The Forest Situation in Hama- 
kua, ’’ that appears in the issue of this magazine for April, 1908; Vol. V. 
No. 4, pp. 77 to 89. 
