WEALTH IN PINE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 63, 6 August 1947, Page 5

WEALTH IN PINE

600,000 ACRES OF FOREST KAINGAROA’S VAST POTENTIALITIES INVESTMENT FOR THE FUTURE Stretching from the broken Urewera mountains, across the central dish of the North Island known as the Kaingaroa Plains, to the tablelands of Taupo and Taurangakumu ranges On the south, is the largest man-made pine forest in the world. The vast State' venture embracing 300,000 acres is neighboured by thousands of acres of plantations belonging to a number of private concerns, which include Perpetual Forests Ltd., and the stand owned by the Whakatane Paper Mills. Viewed from the Pekapeka lookout (1,800 ft.) the immensity of the undertaking can readily be grasped as rolling blue waves of forest stretch interminably from horizon to horizon.

Members of the Whakatane Chamber of Commerce as guests of the Murupara branch of that body, were given their first introduction of the. vast wealth wrapped up in New ‘Zealand’s central pine forests, when they visited the Plains ' last Saturday.

It would be 'impossible to assess the actual value of these immense plantations, which are guarded by a most elaborate system of- firebreaks and lookout wardens. Working on the rough estimate of some 50,000 feet which was taken from a single stand of 103 acres, it is possible to aim at a meteoric figure which approaches somewhere near 15,000,000,000 superficial feet—sufficient to meet the home demand for softwoods for generations to come. .However Kiangaroa is far from maturity today, and . can be regarded .only with an eye to the future as .an investment for posterity. Kiangaroa Village • The State plantation alone supports a village of some 500 persons. It is a neat, attractive settlement some twenty miles from Murupara, and situated in the heart of the pine forests. Here are housed the wardens, the nursery experts, the planting staff ■and the labourers. It has a.newness which betokens the sudden revival of Government interest following the -armistice, and appears to be a bright centre in which social and other amenities are in the steady process of development. New areas are in constant process of planting, and the gangs in this type of employment average. 1000 seedlings planted per man per day. The record is held by one cham-

pion who planted no less than 5000 in a single day. This however is largely dependent on the nature of the country involved. Historical In 1903, the first furtive experiment was undertaken in Kiangaroa by a Government group from Rotorua. A small patch of some twenty acres was planted in the vicinity of the site of the present Kiangaroa village. This was composed mainly of Douglas Fir, the famed timbering with which the main cities of America and Canada were built.

Today this experimental plot boasts trees 180 feet high with girths two and three feet through. Magnificent in the straight and slender shafting of their boles, these trees are carefully listed and marked, and their growth noted from year to year. Many of them rise eighty feet sheer before the first branches.

mmm&i&r—' t— - Prison Labour

Not until 1913 did the venture receive fresh impetus. The vast-Plains were inhospitable in every, way. There was no water in any shape or form for nearly 100 miles, and all that covered the pumice and red loam which composed the surface was a rough native tussock upon which hardy droves of wild horses lived, and a few occasional scraggy sheep. Parliamentary brainwave diverted prison labour as a means of planting fresh groves of imported pines. The venture was hardly a success, and at the most only a few hundred acres were planted by this means. The creation of a Forestry Department solved the problem and set the nation’s best brains on to the task of establishing the pine in. one of the Dominion’s most barren areas. A Wide Variety Steadily the groves advanced across Kiangaroa. The blue of the Canadian and American pines flourished and outgrew their home records in every respect. The main varieties were Radiata, Douglas Fir, Muriana, Muricata, Pondeirosa, and the Corsican Pine known better as Laricio. Sturdy representatives from foreign lands, they have adapted themselves well to their new surrouildings, and grow lustily in what .was once only adjudged the of New Zealand. One day, in . the not very distant future the first cutting will be made for milling in a big way to meet the growing needs of the Dominion’s building programme. Through Galatea will pour in steady stream the endless - timber supplies from the pine stands of which all too few New Zealanders know anything.