(4.) Permanent Loss of the Bush.

It may seem rather a superfluous statement to make, that one of the results of the removal of the forest is the loss of the bush. But it is well, perhaps, to consider, before it is too late, how much the statement involves. The European and American forestry regulations, so often quoted, which provide for the judicious thinning-out and the gradual removal of the full-grown trees, and so on, cannot be made to apply to the forest of this country. No single tree once removed from the New Zealand bush can ever be replaced, while to attempt to “thin out” the New Zealand bush is to condemn it to immediate destruction. From a scenic point of view the loss also is incalculable. The New Zealand bush has grown up under conditions which, once removed, can never be restored. Favoured by special climatic conditions, undisturbed by the presence of any ruminating animal, the bush, with its patriarchal trees, its wealth of underwood, its profusion and variety of epiphytes and climbing plants, has attained a richness and beauty probably unequalled, and certainly not surpassed, in any part of the world. In a block of kauri in the Auckland Museum, measuring 8 ft. in diameter, the Curator, Mr. Cheeseman, counted no less than 455 concentric rings, each ring representing a year's growth. But the tree from which the block was cut was only a sapling compared with the giants of 10 ft., 12 ft., or 14 ft. which have been sacrificed for milling-timber. Thousands of years must have been required for their growth. How many thousands more it must have taken to evolve the conditions necessary for their existence it would be vain to attempt to guess. With a fair amount of care a specimen tree may be grown away from its natural surroundings. A kauri, a rimu, or a totara will make a very handsome object