STATE FORESTRY AT HANMER.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20179, 6 March 1931, Page 17

STATE FORESTRY AT HANMER.

A NATIONAL WORK. THE PLANTATIONS TO-DAY. The extent, no less than the beauty, of the plantations at Hanmer under the control of the New Zealand State Forest Service never fails to impress visitors. Much, of the work in the State Forest plantations at Hanmer is new work, which, now that some results are apparent, has only just begun to be assessed at its true value. ,

This week a special representative of The Press was conducted on a tour of the plantations by Mr H. Roach, the ranger in charge of State Forests in jtforth Canterbury. The remarkable firefighting system of the area was explained to him; he was able to observe for himself the damage that had been done to some of the young trees by deer; and ho saw some good timber being milled that was originally planted by the present Conservator of State Forests for Canterbury, Mr W. G. Morrison. There is a high hill at the rear of Hanmer, and upon it is the Forestry fire look-out station. The visitor reafches this hill, and sees before him a plain, or a basin, walled by hills, carpeted for at least one-third of its length by trees. The pile of the carpet is luxuriantly thick, and in design it is geometrical. These squares and rectangles, and all manner of quadrilateral figures, together with a good many others, possess more than mere beauty of form. They are coloured, in two tints, and if the visitor be fortunate enough to reach the top of the hill on a day of sunshine, then he will be enraptured by the contrasts between sky, white puff cloud, hazy brown hills, and the dark green and light green of the middle distance. The light patches are larch trees, and the dark are pine. These two kinds mako up the bulk of the trees in the forests. The piqes with their needle foliage, and their evergreen hardiness *ro rightly regarded as among the most useful of trees. This distinction is shared by the larch, with the elegance of its conical growth, and the durability of its wood. Other trees are grown in the plantations. There are rows of beeches, and there are poplars, "which will be later transplanted in some of the marshy regions of the valley:

Trees at All Stages. Thousands of acres are planted with ! trees, some of which are young, others middle-aged, and a few approaching their allotted span. When Hanmer was originally chosen as the site of a health resort for the South Island, it was considered that the? tourist traffic alone would be insufficient to support a township of the Bize contemplated, and the Government resolved to establish a forestry centre. The wisdom of this decision has on occasion been challenged, on the ground that when the forests began to produce .the timber would be I too far from the market. _ However, i the suitability of the' area in respect of i .soil and climato has beqn abundantly -proved. Prior to 1921the ; ar6a planted i was about 2800 acres, mixed pina andlarch. There was a long period when' nQ planting was done> out to-day the i area 'growing trees' is approximately | 10,000 " acres. - ,v 1 Under the direction,^in ther : beginning of Mf Morriaony who Vmw ' ranger at H&nnfijr;'' : I#|w' -"of Hr Eoacb, Jthe Bubdivided. and foaced, 'and good road# have been made through # them. ■ An. interesting yoad 1b that leading up the' hill ia. known as Jollie-'s Paps.; ' A gitefci part of the work at Haiwjer 1 to-day consists> of thinning Out. ••V-Jbcr. perts are engaged in this, and <%'ey move among the trees, marking . those' | that do not by any great fitness seem r 'to ] warrant survival. ( < • , I The visitor to Hanmer whtfiis observ- I ant may notice that many of the ;bill& j surrounding the plain "are undergoing a transformation." Those to the, east , and north-east are faintly striped. Later these- stripes will tend to . merge into one another,/and then the surface of the hills will Tesemble nothing more than well tended lawns. This is because planting is being carried on. It seems strange to the layman, but hills grow better trees than the flat. The work of; planting on the hillsides is, of course, arduous. . - Since the beginning, approximately £IOO,OOO has been spent at Hanmer. Nearly 75 per cent, of this sum has been spent on labour. v Fire.. To the forestry man there is no : more dreaded word than fire. The chance lighting of a match, or the chance action of sun rays on an old bottle may destroy in a few- hours of high wind the labour of a lifetime, and longer. Therefore the State.Forest Service has developed efficient methods fire_prevolition and of locating outbreaks. Great trouble has also been taken to provide good methods of putting fires put, but the principal concern has been for locating fires quickly, and getting to them immediately. To facilitate this at Hanmer the entire plantations have been linked up by an intricate telephone system. On Look-out Hill there is a hut, and permanently stationed there _is a 'man. He is "on the telephone." In the hut, on the wall", is a large plan of the forest area. This is divided up into blocks, and again into compartments. Each is numbered, and lettered. The look-out man one day observes smoke. : He immediately telephones. the office on the flat: ; "Smoke in such-and-such a block, such-and-such a compartment." Whoever is in charge at the office at the time leases at once in a car for the affecteS area.. Surveying the extent of the fire there, he either uses a telephone which is at hand, or else taps one of the wires; which are never far distant. » On the spot, the man can telephone to the office and describe the extent of the outbreak, request so many men, with the necessary appliances, and set the whole/ machinery of the system in motion. , , ,- .. At intervals throughout every day the look-out man telephones to' the head office to signify that all is well. At the same time he is concerned with the compilation of a daily diary of weather conditions.' A previous method of fire prevention at Hanmer had for its basis a system of fire boxes, but this, it is understood, is now largely superseded by the block system. Nevertheless, it can be used in case .of emergency. Fortunately there have-bo far been few fires in the plantations, but those that have occurred have done an extraordinary amount of | damage m a short space of time. - j

. Damage by Deer. j The proximity of the settlement of Hanmer and the enveloping control of I the plantations is such that it xa difficult to imagine that deer have done considerable damage to the trees in many areas But this is an undeniable fact. In the last two years 24 have been. shot. The worst of the damage has been done in the vicinity of the Pereival river In one compartment it was observed that a number of young .pxnua insigms had been visited by deer; some had been almost broken dow# others had the bark i 22 or rubbed off, and in pome cases Tenders were bitten off. It is remark-

able that the deer come down so elosely to civilisation. j The iPirst Sawmill. sawmill in any State plantation in New Zealand is working at Hanmer now. It is controlled cooperatively by six men, and they obtain timber from the Government on a royalty basis. From many points of vieW this is interesting, and it is regarded in State forest circled as noteworthy. Mr Boach, at Hanmer, has done much to assist, the establishment of the mill; and the men are working enthusiastically to make the venture a success. The timber that the mill is working on at present was originally planted by the present Conservator, Mr Morrison. Thjs was about twenty-eight years ago. It is good radiata pine, and has grown very well in the short space of time The pine being cut is very clean, and remarkably free from! rot.

j The Nursery at Balmoral. | Good progress ia "being made with ! the rearing of young trees at Balmoral. To realise the number that "are at preont in the ground is almost impossible, but a conservative'count' has assessed them at 15,000,000. With the assistance of good weather conditions the young shoots are now looking: at their best, and are mostly of a good healthy colour. Wjork at loosening the soil and thinning out ■ with subsequent transplanting is going , ahead every day. will be' planted out on the hills .and the plain, there to grow into stands of useful timber. "