FORESTRY.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19156, 12 November 1927, Page 4

FORESTRY.

ROYAL ENGLISH SOCIETY. MR J. DEANS'S SUGGESTION. (FKOM OUI OTX COaRXSPOSBEKT.) LONDON, September 30. Mr G. W. E. Loder (who presented the silver cup to New Zealand a few mouths ago in the hope of encouraging the preservation and cultivation 01 native flora) presided at the annual diuner, in Taunton, held in connexion with the summer meeting or the Roval English Arboricultural society. Mr and Mrs James Deans (Christ-, church) were-'among the guests. Mr R. L. Robinson (of the Forestry Commission) said it was the Commissioner*,' duty to do everything in their j power to promote private forestry, and i the bulk of the success which the Forestry Commission might achieve was due entirely to the work of the private landowners" The Commission was founded in 1919, and now had an i estate which aggregated about half a, million acres. Roughly, about 300,010 acres would become forest m due course, ) and in addition the Commissioners had taken over the Crown forests, so that, including 100,000 acres of land wnicn they had planted in eight years, they now held a total afforested area ot 1 something like ' 160,000 acres. The Commissioners had goue ahead steadily i since 1924 with the formation of iorest workers' holdings, which now numbered between 300 and 400, and to winch about 1-50 holdings were being added every year. The Commissioners were spending roughly £700,000 a year ,_ and wetting a revenue of about £135,000 to £-i40,000 annually. As they were on an expending programme that expenditure ought to increase, but whether it would increase or not was on the knees of the Gods and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Comissioners' object had been to get planted in this country in the fust, decade 250.000 acres of land, and their latest estimate was that the Commissioners would plant 139,000 acres and private landowners 100,000 acres, partly on their own accord and partly through grants, so that the prospective total was 239,000 acres, against 2-50,000. That was not so bad. as Government Departments go. (Laughter.). The Commissioners had to thresh out with the Government a programme for the second decade (from March, 1929, to 1939). . Speeding tip Planting. The results of the census of woodlands "were rather astonishing, and showed that the total area of woodland in Great Britain was a little short of 3,000,000 acres. Half of that was reasonably stocked woodland, 800,000 acres were'scrub or fell, and 500,000 acres were coppice which might be reasonably good from a forestry point of view, but more often was rubbish. On top of that there were another 200,000 acres of shelter belts and amenity woods, which were in no sense commercial. After referring to the absence of soft woods, the bulk of which were felled in the war, Mr Robinson reckoned that if the Commissioners planted at the rate of 30,000 acres a year, and tho private individual 12,000 acres a year, it would take until 1955 to get as much as 3.000,000 acres of fully stocked woodland in this country. The basis of their whole policy in this country, as laid down by the Ac-land Committee during the war, was that they should have in Great Britain and Ireland roughly 4J. million acres of fully stocked woodland. Therefore, if they had only 3,000,000 by 1955, there was a considerable' need for speeding up, and to bring it down somewhere near the figure which was wanted, and which could be done, the Commissioners estimated that .the programme in the second decade should he something between 300,000 and 500,000 acres per annum. It was extremely unlikely in these days, when national economy—in theory, at least—was always to the fore, that the Commissioners would bo allowed to carry out a really big programme such as the merits of the case alone, would warrant. A 50,000-acre programme per annum for ten years would entail an expenditure of something like £15,000,000, or £1,500,000 per annum, on planting alone. He also stressed the need of more land for planting, and said possibly that was a matter in which that Society might help the Commissioners. Last year they planted. 23,800 acres, using 45,000,000 plants. De-forestry in New Zealand. Mr James Deans, in.a very interesting speech, proposed the toast of "The Eoyal English Arboricultural Society." He said he. had been asked, when coming to the Old Country, to represent the New Zealand Society in England, on the Continent, and wherever possible. During the short time he had been in England he had seen much which would be of great value to New Zealand. He regretted they had done a tremendous lot of de-forestry in New Zealand. What was once an acreage of forty millions of forest in the country had been reduced to twelve millions. A great deal of forest was cleared to provide grazing land. Now :

they had to re-afforest. One of the things that had impressed him in this country was the amount of timber possessed, and he thought it wonderful that forestry should have been so well maintained on private estates as it had been. He was glad to find also that the Government had a forestry policy, probably the first in its history. Mr Deans pointed to the necessity of propaganda work and of giving such support to the Forestry Commission aB would ensure a continuous forestry policy apart from political influences or changes. There was need for a strong body of opinion that would enable the Government to continue its forestry policy without interference.

Suggested Empire Scheme. Mr Deans congratulated the Society ipon its work in conjunction with chools. New Zealand also was enleavouring to educate children to the tecessity of forestry, and to encourage i love of trees to grow up with the hildren. He welcomed the interesttig statement made by Mr Robinson, iegarding the support which the Soiety could give, he would like to see t working in association with kindred Dcioties throughout the British Emire If they could form such a 'ederation of League they would be ble to have one forestry policy' for he Empire. It might then be possible )r one country to grow soft woods nd another hard woods, and so supply 11 their needs. That was a wide view ) take, and he felt sure the Royal Inglish Society would worthily play its art in any such Empire scheme. (Aplause.) Mr Deans expressed sincere lianks to Mr Loder for a generous gift a had lately made to New Zealand*. The Loder Trophy. Mr Loder held the view that quesons of forestry were not insular; they ere not confined to the Empire, but ere of world-wide interest. Not only ere their interests common, but the ifficultics 'and problems ■ they had to »Ive were very similar. He had taken great interest in New Zealand, its ara, and its trees, and the origin of s gift was a conversation he had with le Prime Minister of New Zealand at ie Imperial Conference last year, iey then talked of the dteplorable deistation which had taken . place in ew Zealand and the need of reaffortation. It was a great pleasure to resters in England to know that this

was now being taken in hand so thoroughly. Timber Imported for Sleepers. Mr Deans's presence reminded the Society how wide the question was. Few people realised how rapidly the forestry resources, not only of the Empire, but of the world, were being depleted. Every individual in the United States accounted for the annual consumption of 200 cubic feet of wood), as against 15 feet for every person in the United Kingdom, and that was all being drawn from Canada. They had been informed that the remaining assessable forests of Canada would not last more than 20 to 25 years at the present rate of depletion. More than 95 per cent, of the timber consumed in this country came from abroad. What brought it more home to him

was that the great industry with which he was connected purchased each year timber to the value of £720,000, and of that aomount less than £50,000 worth was British-grown. Of that £50,000, he was proud to say, £40,000 went in the purchase of oak, but he regretted to say that their reafforestation of oak was much smaller than it ought to be. The greater item of the £720,000 worth of timber he had mentioned was £400,000 for sleepers required on the railways, not a single one of which could be found in this country. The specification was a hard one, and difficult to comply with, _ but it was a remarkable fact that this enormous amount of timber had to come entirely from abroad. Concluding with a tribute to the Forestry Commission, Mr Loder said thero was no more important branch of forestry than the work _ which the Commission was doing, and it was only in that way they would be able to meet the bare necessity requirements of the country should a time of stress and trouble come upon them again.