mouths. “Should there be any appre- 
ciable silting up of the Ruamahanga 
near its mouth, the consequences will 
be most disastrous to the whole of the 
Wairarapa in flood time.” And if we 
add to the damage thus done by banking 
up the flood-waters, the injury inflicted 
everywhere on our coastal trade by the 
choking of otherwise navigable rivers, 
we must agree that “what is wanted is 
a comprehensive scheme for river con- 
servation all over New Zealand, outlined 
by Government engineers especially ap- 
pointed for the purpose.” But these 
articles have been written to little pur- 
pose if I have not by this time convinced 
my readers that no scheme of soil pro- 
tection or river conservation can be of 
any value which does not take into 
account the devastating effects of the 
destruction of the natural bush along 
the banks of our streams. . 
DENUDATION AND EROSION. 
But the prevalence of floods and the 
silting up of rivers and _ bar-har- 
Lours is not by any means the only 
evil effect of deforestation, of which 
New Zealand has already had _prac- 
tical experience. I have spoken 
earlier in these articles of the terrible 
consequences of erosion and denudation 
on hillsides where forests have been cut 
away; and though our country has been 
too recently settled and cleared to exhi- 
bit the worst effects of these changes, it 
is no exaggeration to say that-there is 
not a single district in the Dominion from 
the Bluff to the North Cape that does not 
in some way illustrate my argument. 
Travelling recently from Wellington to 
Auckland by the Main Trunk line, I 
looked out on mile after mile of hillside 
where the bush had been cut out, and 
where great gashes and clefts and chan- 
nels had already been torn by landslips 
or scoured by rain. Everywhere these 
infallible signs show that the soil, no 
longer kept in place by trees and brush- 
wood, is being washed down into the 
valleys, and it is only a matter of time 
before the hills will be stripped bare and 
36 
the flats at their base will themselves 
be overlaid with the clay and shingle that 
will pour down as the process of erosion 
goes on. What all this may ultimately 
mean to the country, it is, as one of the 
greatest authorities on the subject has 
said, very difficult to convey in words. 
Marsh has traced in detail with impres- 
sive eloquence the transformation of 
“forest-crowned hills, luxuriant pasture 
grounds, and abundant cornfields and 
vineyards well watered by springs and 
fertilising rivulets to bald mountain 
ridges, rocky declivities and steep earth 
banks furrowed by deep ravines with 
beds now dry, now filled by torrents of 
fluid mud and gravel hurrying down to 
spread themselves over the plain and 
dooming to everlasting barrenness the 
once productive fields. In traversing 
such scenes,” adds this distinguished ob- 
server, “it is difficult to resist the impres- 
sion that Nature pronounced the curse 
of perpetual sterility and _ desolation 
upon these sublime but fearful wastes, 
difficult to believe that they once were, 
and but for the folly of man might still 
be, blessed with all the natural advant- 
ages which Providence has bestowed upon 
the most-favoured climes.” This is no 
imaginative or fanciful description. It is 
absolutely realistic in its aecuracy, and 
it depicts only too clearly the terrible 
fate that may overtake New Zealand, as 
it has overtaken many other lands, if 
we disregard the warnings of history and 
the recorded experience of the past, and 
recklessly destroy our forests for the 
sake of a little temporary gain. 
A PLEA FOR CAUTION. 
At this juncture I am well aware that 
I am likely to be met with the question: 
“Do you really mean that we ought never 
to cut down bush; and if you do mean 
it, what will become of the timber indus- 
try, and how is the country to be set- 
tled?’’ I reply that there is no reason 
why a rational policy of conservation 
should not be perfectly consistent with 
the maintenance of a large timber trade 
and with the steady progress and develop- 
ment of the country. The difficulty is 
