TIMBER TREES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1752, 17 May 1913, Page 6

TIMBER TREES.

THE FORESTRY COMMISSION. INTERESTING EVIDENCE. WHAT HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE. 1 Tho Forestry Commission opened its sittings in Wellington yesterday. Mr. H. D. M. Haszard presided, and thero wero present: Messrs. F. Y. Lethbridge, C. P. Murdoch, S, if Clarke, and Dr. Cockayne, I'VB.S. i Mr. W. H. Bennett, president of tho 'Builders' Federation, submitted a memory ial presented by the federation to the Government, urging that steps be taken to conserve the native forests of tho Dominion. Ho spoke generally .of tho , liigh prico- of timber, which was evidence .'of short supply, and the need for > in'creasing that supply. In America steps J wero bcifl" taken to keep up the supply, i but the demand was growing' with it. ; \ Professor Kirk said ho had mado some ; microscopic examinations of New Zealand Iconifer timbers, but ho had never published tho result of hi 9 investigations. [•He was not sura that such a research ■ j,Would be of much economic valuo, but it !Would certainly bo of great scientific yaluo. Ha thought it would bo well if one of the colleges were to specialise in botany, and to appoint a professor who had mado a study of forestry. Tho pro- , lessors who taught botany also took zoology, and these woro two such wido subjects that a man could not keep himself up-to-dato in both of them. . Work for Consumptives. ■ Dr. Valintine, Inspector-General of Hospitals, gavo evidence submitting proposals for the employment of consumptives at' .treo-planting. Ho estimated that there Were now 2000 consumptives in New Zea-. land at the present time,\ and of these 1500 could bo employed at this work when Hie sanatoria wero thoroughly organised With this end in view. Consumptive )L'anips, at which' convalescents drafted from the sanatoria, practically cured of ■tho disease, but not sufficiently recovered to go back to indoor occupations, would' «e very beneficial for the patients. There Would be little rislc of such cases breaking klown again, but that contingency would ' .. jhave to bo considered, and it would not ■bo advisable to have tho camp out of ieach of medical aid. An experiment had .already been tried near Rotorua, and it 'had beeu fairly successful. It had certainly . kept tho patients away . from the community when they were suffering from the disease in a stage when it might Jiave been infectious. The net cost to tha (Department of' the camp was ' about 2s. 8(1. per day for each consumptive employed, independent of what' tho men yarned. Out of their earnings 'the men Were required to pay part of tho cost of their maintenance at the camp. By this )ueans tho Department recovered the Working expenses of the'camp. If _ the pchemo wero embarked upon ho bolieved his Department would erect the camp, jnnd the patients would be able to return ito their .'ordinary work, in two years, many of them in, veiy much less time. It was good for the patients that they ehould have provided for them outdoor pmploymen't, and it was certainly very tor the community. ,7 Climatic, Reserves. Mr. A. Hamilton, curator of-the Dominion Museum, tendered evidence on behalf of" the Philosophical Society. The view of the society was..tlia.t .anything' that could be done ought- to bo done to restrain denudation, and. to keep climatic reserves on the high ranges. It was certainly a fact that deer were preventing tho regeneration of tho forests by destroying .the young growth and barking tho trees. This was having the effect of letting in su'n and wind too much, and increasing the liability to fire. The chairman showed photographs of the damages wrought by deer—trees entirely stripped of bark near tho ground—in a bush near Haamer. Mr. Hamilton said Buch damage .would hlive a yei'y serious effect in destroying tho trees and all tho other growth of the forest. It became a question of whether they would have deer or trees. If tho trees were ' destroyed, floods might come, and a flood might do more damage than all tho good the deer might do. To Dr. Cockayno: He advocated the extension of the Tongariro National Park, agreeing, that the growth of forest there would have an important effect on tho "VVanganui 'River, which had ono of its sources thero.' It would maintain high . water in' tho 'river and so assist tho river traffic. Tho park, if fully planted, would in fact, bo a most important climatic reDr, A. K. Newman, M.P., also offered evidence ia support of tho extension of the National Park. He had been on the park last year and Tie thought it of very considerable importance that its area should be enlarged. Babbits were multiplying ;there, and insufficient steps were being taken to eradicato them. The rabbits were certainly eating up a good deal of the : original native flora, and ho thoujht it timo that tho primitive flora should bo preserved by tho extermination of tho rabbits, and the park enlarged. The park supplied also the head waters of t'he WaBganui River, and if tho area were planted much damago might bo saved from possible floods on tho river. . Thero were also valuable hot springs on tho northern slopes of Tongariro. Ho was anxious to tea these acquired and the whole area < turned into a fine playground. To tho chairman: Ho knew nothing of tha devastation wrought by deer. It might bo possible to permit somo of tho bush on the area near tho park to bo milled, and then closed. In course of years it would then restore itself, although the character of tho bush scenery would bo to'an extent, destroyed. To Dr. Cockayne: Thero wero millions of rabbits on the Teservo killing out the , native herbacioug plants, and something should certainly be done to preserve tho mativo flora on this reserve. Ho hoped .tho commission would see its .way to rei pommend tho enlargement of the park. Prison Labour. . ■ Mr. H. A. Goudie, superintending nurseryman under the .Government for the •North Island, said tho employment of prisoners at "tree-planting had been satisfactory up till the last threo years, when ilio supply of prisoners had apparently decreased. The value of the labour was estimated by tho Department by the standard of what it would cost to do the same Work by free labour. In the event of afiorestation work being much extended it would seem that sufficient prisoners would 'not bo availablo to do the .work. More labour , could very easily hfcve been absorbed during tho last fow years in the North Island. Ho believed tho Prisons Depart- . nncnt wero somewhat more strict than formerly in selecting men for tho camps. 'Jll fnot tho AVaipa Camp was now virtually a first offenders' cauip. Tlio work 'did the prisoners good morally; they were 'trained in useful work and souio discharged mon had been employed with good rc'fiiilts for terms. Tho difficulty about consumptives' labour was that it was not 'certain enough. Many of tho patients (did not caro to work,. . knowing that if they could not earn their 'keep ' the Government would remit it, and somo wero unablo to do tlie hardest of tho work. Ho thought if consumptive camps wero to bo established they had better 7)0 tig camps, and a young doctor put in charge of each one to adviso as to whether any man was fit to work. ■ At the carnp at Eotorua, which had been ia chargo of a matron, tho men had played on the sympathies of the woman, and refused to work, although comparatively quite well. A man would take a drink of hot-tea and say his temperature had gone up; ' .This wa9 quite a common occurrence. If the Department was to allow consumptives to do the work tho Department must pay only for work, done, frail not at wages rates. About the Plantations. Plantations should never be less in area than 3000 acres. In smaller blocks fences and fire breaks were relatively more expensive to keep up than in large blocks. Similarly, it would bo better to havq big nurseries than small ones, but the cost of freight had to bo considered, and it would not, therefore, bo well to havo too few nurseries. One nursery would not suffice for tho wholo North Island, for instance. Ho had tried sowing various kinds of seeds—eucalyptus and pines—but • without success.. Very fow of tho seeds terminated, and tlio young trees died out, probably owing to the dry weather prevailing at the timo. He had not fried v- .xilaut oui' .fiFvbolt® iritli. fiw resisting

trees. A bolt of poplar between big of inflammable trees libo pines would be of great assistauco in stopping n crown fire, although there was dauger of tho poplar leaves carrying a ground fire, it would always be accessary to cultivate firo breaks, especially near public ioaU9 and near settlement. At times ho had difficulty in getting free labour when prison labour was not available, -the payment of free workers was by day wages, at tlio rate of Bs. per day. To Mr. Clarke: He considered that tho trees being planted now were all ot sorts to produco timber suitablo for building construction. Tho Douglas fir had been tho most profitable, but good success had been met with in growing tho American wliito pine, the Corsican pine, and tlio Piuus Poaderosa. In view of tho extent of high bad in Now Zealand, ho thought it would'bo well to experiment with tuoso trees known to flourish best on high altiTo Mr. Murdoch: Ho thought tho firo breaks were reasonably safe protection with constant watching, but he admitted that .they wore uofc of much value in stopping a flying crown fire. It would bo better to plant the break with poplar trees, or rather to plant a break of, say, two chairs with deciduous trees like tho poplar, and to keep a cultivated strip outside the poplar break. Ho would not advise tho planting of any more Austrian pines or larch, but all the other trees planted would grow into Valuable building timber trees. To Dr. Cockayne: About -300,000 Douglas firs, and about fho same number of American whito pine, had been planted, Short Supply of Timber. Mt, G. E. Schwarz, president of the Institute of Architects in Wellington,, said he had 35 years' experience in Isew Zealand in the practice of hi-s profession. limber was incroasing rapidly in price, tuid tlifc quality supplied was steadily K° ln >j down. Tho dilterenc« between the cost of timber and brick as a building material was from 30 to 40 per cent. There was not enough machinery hero to make i'-cto-concrete cheaply. If the price of timber went up very much more it would be advisable to use permanent materials, Somo of the Oregon pino imported was very good, but in America many trees were topped for resin and then cut down for buildin" timber. The effect of tapping was to weaken the timber, but it was linpossibJo to tell until timber was tried whetlrcr timber was from a tapped tree or not. Ho thought more close supervision should bo exorcised over the cutting of tirober ti£€S in New Zealand. They should, be out under the supervision of foresters, as on tho Continent.' Tress-would thfcn cllt too soon, and thev would ba ciffc alirays at tho rjg-ht season, which would prevent tho timber from shrinking and warping. Ho asrreed that there was an urgent need of afforestation h:-re, and as .fln instance of what could bo done he cited the caso of Germany, whore the supply of timber wa9 never allowed to diminish. Butter Boxes.; Mr. David Cuddle, Director of Dairy Produco in ths Department ot Agriculture, said tlio Department.had not experimented extensively with New Zealand woods, other than white pine, for use as flitter boxes. A small experiment had been tried with pdplar, and. it had turned out very successfully. Shown a satnplo of a pLnus insignis board, he expressed the opinion that the wood might provo a useful butterbox' timber, if properly seasoned and paraffined. Butter boxes were costing about Is. in Wellington on an average. It was very essential that tho timber for butter boxes or cheese crates should be thoroughly seasoned. i Mr. W. M.' Singleton, assistant director of the Dairy Produco Division of the Agricultural Department, gave evidence as to tho style of package used for packing butter in Canada. I'ormerly tubs of spruce timber were used, but now boxes of pino wood word used. The pine used there imparted a flavour to the butter, and JRS guard against that paraffin was used. The supplies of timber were by no means exhausted thero yet, but lie. knew nothing of afforcstation there. , , . The commission. will concludo its sittings for tho heating of evident this morning. The members have still somo reserves and sand dune areas in Wellington) 'province to and thx-n they will return to headquarters, hero to digest tno evidence and framo thlcir report.