It appears, from the paper read by Mr. Justice Gillies before the Auckland Institute, that the cork tree may be most successfully cultivated in that district, and that each tree above the age of twenty-five years may be calculated to produce on an average about 9s. worth of cork every year; whilst Mr. McArthur, speaking at Invercargill, pointed out that in a few years the demand for railway sleepers alone—not to mention the other purposes in the way of building, carving, and fencing, for which timber is required—will exhaust the supply of native wood, and that the difficulty should be met by planting quickly-growing trees, such as larch and fir, on a large scale, without delay: in short, "planting here should follow the sawmillers, and this cannot be done too soon."
With regard to forest conservation as concerning the question of climate, I may quote the words of Mr. Firth, who, in a paper read before the Auckland Institute in 1874, remarks that: "Denudation of timber produces barrenness of soil, increases insect life, creates drought, diminishes rain, accelerates evaporation, causes floods and untimely frosts, lessens the production of food, diminishes population, and finally degrades a nation. The glory of many an ancient empire departed with its forests. To-day Persia and Spain present sad but warning spectacles of desolation and degradation, which, though partially due to various causes, have been intensified by the destruction of their forests."
The forms which the evils resulting from want of timber take differ, of course, in different countries. In addition to the remarks made by Mr. McArthur, Mr. Travers, in speaking before the Wellington Philosophical Society, has pointed out that the destruction of the forests in this country has already caused disastrous floods, and Dr. Meldrum and Dr. Hutchinson have explained how similar causes are bringing about similar results in Mauritius and the Sandwich Islands. From all parts of the world the story is the same. I lately received from the Secretary of State for the Colonies an interesting despatch on the subject, with reference to a large part of Southern Europe. Austria, Switzerland, and France have turned their attention to the reforesting of the bare mountain slopes; but in many districts of Italy the evil has gone on unchecked, and, in consequence of this, the floods are higher, and the average flow of the rivers is lower, than it used to be at the time when the mountains were clothed with timber and vegetation. Last September the inundations in the Province of Venetia, which were, no doubt, to a great extent brought about by this cause, resulted in serious loss of life and wholesale destruction of property.
I am glad to learn that this important subject has for some time been under the consideration of the Government of New Zealand.
