Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/89



It is a thousand pities that our native trees cannot be retained by planting; but bush cannot be restored in this way. Most of the native trees are of slow growth. An English oak, for example, will grow more in ten years than a totara will in fifty. There is a totara tree I have known for sixty years. It stands in a favoured spot on the bank of a stream, and at present is not two feet through at the ground, although a healthy, symmetrical tree.

In twenty years or more I feel sure that all our timber that can be easily got at will be gone, and it seems to me an imperative duty of the Government to conserve what is left for the benefit of future generations. The importation of Oregon pine should be encouraged, and the exportation of our native timber checked, in view of the fact that our supply is so small. Kahikatea, for instance, is rapidly disappearing, and when