AFFORESTATION.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20085, 14 November 1930, Page 12

AFFORESTATION.

HOMEBUSH PLANTATIONS.

PRAISE FROM AN EXPERT. "Wednesday was one of the most intercsting days I have yet spent in New Zealand," remarked Mr Owen Jones, Forestry Administrator to New Zealand Perpetual Forests, Ltd., to a reporter of The Pre? s ! last evening, referring to a trip to the Homebush plantations. He and Mr N. 6. Gribble, secretary of the New Zealand Timber Growers' Association, in company with Messrs 0. E. Foweralcer ahd F. E. Hutchinson; of the Canterbury College School of Forestry, inspect these model plantations, which are the result of tho work of Mr James Deans.

"There are a great many different species," said Mr Jones, "and they are all growing well. They are an example of what enthusiasm for forestry, combined with ability, can do." Yesterday the party visited some of the plantations under the control of the Selwyn Plantations Board. Mr Jones was iinpresse'd with the remarkable growth of the trees, and the splendid asset which tho Board had.

Mr, Jones himself has . received his training in forestry in many parts of the world. He is a graduate of Oxford University, where he received his theoretical training. This was followed by practical work in afforestation in Germany and France, and later, ir. Ceylon, before coming to New Zealand.

The company which he now serves controls well over 200,000 acres, chiefly of exotic conifers, in the North Island, most of the trees being pinus insignis, pinus ponderosa, and redwoods. The majority of these trees ,are planted in the pumice areas about Rotorua. It is estimated that there are two million acres of this class of country, and planting it with trees is ono of the meana by which it is hoped to bring a large part of it into profit.