THE IMPORTANCE OF FORESTRY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17990, 6 February 1924, Page 6

THE IMPORTANCE OF FORESTRY.

LESSON FOR NEW ZEALAND. (press association telegeaii.) "WELLINGTON, February 5. Mr L. Macintosh Ellis, Director of Forestry, who has been attending the Empire Forestry Conference, says that owing to losses by fire and insects' Canadian timber will be nearly exhausted in twenty years. British Columbia is the only part with much timber left. Over £jL,olil),OUo a year is spent on fire prevention, and sti.i the losses are as serious as ever. The United States is also cutting trees, at least four times faster than they are being replaced. West Coast timber will be exhausted in seventeen or eighteen years, and the United States Government must soon stop export, but attention is being given to re-forestry. The conclusion. Mr Ellis conves to is that New Zealand must grow her own wood supplies or go without it. New Zealand leads in certain phases of State Forestry, but there is need of a forest school and the provision of trained men. The conference recommended that the Empire should become seif-support-ing in timber matters, and it was pointed out that one-third of the world's forests were within the Empire, a total of 700,0C0 square miles. It also recommended the formation of an Empire Forestry Bureau, considering that a central institution for specialised training combined with research was essential for the. proper development of the forest resources of the Empire.