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August 13, 1904.]
A PROTEST AGAINST LEVITY.
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT, athletic contests, the national physique is deteriorating. With an insufficient appre- ciation of the seriousness of war, there must follow, in like manner, a retrogression of the moral fibre. TENNYSON's utterance:
"Let knowledge grow from more to more,
And more of reverenca in us dwell,"
has a deeper meaning than that upon its All this must sound like the cheapest of surface. Its purview is omnipercipient. cheap moralising, but let the reader call to mind the comments he has heard, and pro bably made, with reference to the expected fall of Port Arthur, with the terrible car- nage it is certain to entail; and the force of trike home. We warning cannot fail to thith many others of our fellows, we shall hail the capture of Port Arthur, when it comes, with a huge relief, but the relief will not be because of an anticipated sensation at long last enjoyed. It will be because that event will figure, we hope, as the in- of a disagreeable duty: a war that was mediate precursor and harbinger of the end
necessary to secure peace, but not any more pleasant or humorous to witness on that
account.
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(Daily Press, 10th August.)
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the fact. When the first plantations were formed on the slopes above the city of Victoria during the regime of Sir ARTHUR KENNEDY they were made with the double object of beautifying the island and increas- ing the rainfall. His successor, Sir Jo¤s POPE HENNESSY, who was an enthusiastic tree planter, and raised the annual vote to though we believe he also argued that in a $12,000, did so from the same motives,
few years it would be possible to obtain some small revenue by thinning out the pines and selling the timber. This has been done from time to time, as much, however, to encourage the growth of the remaining trees na to make revenue, which was never ex- pected to become an appreciable item among
the assets. The forests have, however,
proved well worth the money expended upon them. They have served to in crease the rainfall, and they have helped to make the streams more per- manent. They have also transformed the surface of the island, which, when first
acquired presented, in winter especially, a singularly barren appearance. Mr. DUNN is apparently eager to again reduce it to that aspect in order to rake in a few paltry dollars for the Treasury. He has already converted part of the slopes round Aberdeen into a waste, and will presumably, unless his ruthless hand is stayed, proceed, block by block, to render the entire island hideous. We cannot believe that for such a cou- sideration, Sir MATTHEW NATHAN Will permit this wholesale destruction of our carefully plauted and long cherished forests. Not only would it be a piece of vandalism but it would be a reversal of the policy of all his predecessors in office. Moreover it would be au net of sheer folly from a sanitary point of view. The health- giving odours of the pine forests everywhere are too well known to be insisted upon, and they are certainly no less desirable here as a prophylactic against fever. We trust that His Excellency will at once intervene and direct the immediate suspension of these devastating assaults upon what may
be termed the sanitary reserves of the island. If it be necessary to prune or thin the plantations, let this be done with care and under the eye of a judicious expert, and not farm out the timber to Chinese to be cut as and where they please. The money is not to be thought of in such a connection. It has taken thirty-five years to cover the nakedness of the land; is it to be tolerated that this shall be re-exposed afresh for a few thousand dollars!
(Daily Press, 9th August.) The tail of a comet is an intangible, un- substantial sort of thing, but there is usually a very real, material nucleus at the business end of it. This is more than can be said for many of the flying rumours with which we have been regaled in connection with the present war. How even a mo- ment's attention can be paid by sensible folk to some of the stories published is a bard thing to understand. That thoughts are often sired by wishes we have the evidence of an adage to certify; but eveu that explanation scarcely fits the business- like air with which some men publish and others ponder such telegraphic trifles as that: It is understood bere (Chefoo) that it is "rumoured in Timbuctoo that the Crimea has been captured, the return of the Alake of "Abeoka being taken as an indication that the report has credence in diplomatic "circles." If that sort of thing be war news, and there is a public demand for it, there ought to be sufficient allurement for the establishment of a rumour factory, and the promotion of a company to exploit it. with, of course, unlimited lie-ability. In this AN AFFORESTATION SCANDAL. war, most of the newspapers have had a fling at the two Governments of Japan and i Russia, one or the other, to show their con- tempt for the usurpation by the authorities; of what they not unnaturally regard as their own particular "pidgin." Yet the conflicting reports of the rival gencrals can. not hope to vie as laughter-provokers with the despatches we have typified in one apocryphal example. Yet are the news- papers guilty of such puerilities wholly to blame? Is their offence not rather an indication of the greater blemish existing in the public which encourages them by paying for them? Have we to admit, in this twen tieth century of civilization and humanity, that a sanguinary struggle between two great peoples, such as we are now witness ing in the Russo-Japanese war, produces no emotion in the public mind other than a consuming and au increasing lust for mere sensations? Is it a fact that the watching millions are advanced no further stage, morally and intellectually, than the tiers of patricians who in ancient Rome held thumbs up or thumbs down to decide for life or death the fate of the prone gladiator in the reeking arena? Is the great Russian reverse-two thousand casualties," nothing more than a breakfast table topic? As the smooth-chinned DEMOSTERNES of the college debating club used to say: "Perish the thought!" Yet there are moments when we are tempted to entertain the unworthy suspicion. We are not of those who hold all war as wicked. With them we join issue, believing that the warrior's trade will last as long as the flow of sap or the law of evolution. Yet, hold- ing that to fight for right and human justice is both natural and proper, we should be sorry to believe that the clash of men in anger, and the shedding of human blood and loss of human life, could ever be so lightly regarded as a passing show. That all men should be anxious and interested in the conduct and outcome of such a strife is a something to be looked for, and however absorbingly displayed, not to be cavilled at. Those men who in tram and grill-room have been tempted to flippant comment should
not checked will soon become a positive in- bethink themselves that the propagation of
fliction, especially to the owners of lawns and such a point of view tends to debasement We fear Mr. DUNN has quite misappre-gardens. A significant proof of its vigour and degradation. Those who sneer in headed the motives with which the votes and marvellous powers of propagation may couples are on a lower plane, even, than for the afforestation of the island were be remarked from the Peak Tramway. The they who "cheered in thousands while the made. He seems to think that the money high bank just below the Royal Artillery striplings went to war," With the advent so laid out was invested with an eye Mess, close to Bowen Road Station, is of professionalism and big gates" at to future profit. This was really not simply covered by this plant, whose purple
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In his interesting report on the afforestation work for the year 1903, Mr. S. T. DUNN, Superintendent of the Botanical and Affores. tation Department, makes the following statement under the head of "Forestry' "The time has now arrived for the Colony to profit to the full extent by the foresight "of the Clovernment of a former genera
tion." Mr. DUNN then proceeds to relate that in the late 'seventies tree planting Was seriously undertaken, aud from 1882 to 1885 the annual expenditure of $12,000 was expressly sanctioned
for afforestation, when from 200,000 to 300,000 young pines were planted each year, and that the annual vote was gradually dimi- nished as the slopes became covered, until it fell to $3,450. As a result of this policy of tree planting there are at this moment nearly 5,000 acres of pine trees on the island and the oldest plantations are now ready to fell and replant." Mr. DUNN goes on to say that he has made a very careful examination of the plantations, delineated them on maps and schedules, and prepared the ground work for the compilation of statistics upon which to found a working plau for 'the future, but the results have a further interest as showing what return the "Government have for their outlay of In connection with the above subject we former years." Following closely up his trust the Superintendent of Forests will conclusion that the time has arrived for the permit us to make a suggestion. It Government to reap where they have sown, is that the abounding energy which has to profit to the full extent by the been directed upon the utilisation of the foresight of previous administrations, Mr. trees as a means of revenue should be DUNN has started an iconoclastic crusade diverted to the repression of the parasites and against the results of the wisdom and energy weeds that now choke the life out of trees and of his predecessors. We refrained, perhaps plants along many of our roads and walks. unfortunately, from criticism of his report There are some forms of creepers that over- before, believing that his intention was to run the vegetation, smother it, and die in thin out some of the plantations, which winter, becoming a pestilent nuisance and has been done periodically by his pre- disfigurement, which are yet very easy of decessors, but from what we have seen at destruction. There are weeds like the Aberdeen we are driven to the conclusion sensitive plant that kill the turf and sub- that the present Superintendent intends to stitute thorns for the pleasant green grass. destroy the forests and lay bare the slopes This pest is quite a newcomer and might which at such a large expenditure of time yet with careful effort be exterminated. But and money have been redeemed from bar-it is spreading with amazing rapidity and if renness and clothed with a verdure that beautifies and adorns them.
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