VANISHING FORESTS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1754, 20 May 1913, Page 8

VANISHING FORESTS.

11 RECKLESS CLEARING. 'AND ITS DIRE RESULTS. STUB I'lilSON LABOUR QUESTION. Tho Forestry Commission concluded tlio hearing of evidence in Wellington yesterday. Thero were present:: Messrs, H. D. ST. Hazard (chairman), V. J. Lcthbridge, C. P. Murdoch, S. I. Clarke, and Dr. L. Cockayne, ■

Prison Labour. Mr. B. Jordan, Under-,Secretary fir 'Justice, gnvo ovidenco concerning the employment of prisoners at tree-planting. 110 expressed tho opinion that it \rauld Lo wise to concentrate 011 two camps, because the cost of running the camps was very heavy. Tho system of employing prisoners at tree phiiiting had been satisfactory to the Department. It seemed to be about tho only thing that ,had any reformative influence whatever, and it influenced only those who wished to bo reformed. It had no effect on the others. Some prisoners did not like the camps, and asked to bo taken back to the gaol. These men 'found they had to work too hard at the i'camps, and they liked to get back to the town to hear the latest news. If camps jiv-ere to be established on an extensive scale, they nrust be comparatively small camps, otherwise they would be difficult 'to administer and control. There was tho [further objection that the cost of keeping 'prisoners at the camps was about double that of keeping them in gaol. At present the Justice Department were not allowed anything for tho. work of tho prisoners for the Forestry Department. If they ■'■were allowed something it would be possible to pay tho prisoners for tho work they did, /requiring them first to do a ■certain amount of work for their maintenance. This money might be used for tho benefit of the prisoner's dependents, or it might bo retained for his opn uso 'when liberated. He stated, further, that of all tho prison .camps that at Haniuer .'■was the least proiitablo to tho Depart- | ment. He added 1 that some of the prison- ■ cra would work well if given an inccntuo to work, and the Department could offer payment only if tho Department wcro paid for' the work done by tho prisoners. The 'u-oner could bo obtained in no other v.ay for tho Department would never get a '.vote, of .money for tho payment of prisoners. To Mr. Clarke: Even if the cost of • planting trees was greater by prison labour than by free labour, he would still : favour the maintenance of the camps, be(cniiso they' were very desirablo from a jjrison point of view.

The Consumptivos. Dr. Hay, Inspector-General of Menial Hospitals and "Prisons, said he did not think any of the areas held by the Mental Hospitals Department would bo suitable for tree planting to bo done by consumptives. Nor would it ho advisable to set them to work at agriculture, which involved the use of implements and expensive teams of horses, for it might Dot be good business to hand over these ; jn. plements and teams to unskilled peoplo. The cost of planting at the prison camps wag as follows:—Waiotapu, £1 ss. per 1000; Hanmer, £2 6s. per 1000; Waipa, £1 19s. per 1000. He approved entirely of the idea that consumptives should bo employed at. tree planting, and he thought the best location for such a camp was Central Otago._ It would be of very great benefit to patients to have outdoor work tor a time after discharge from sanatoria.

.. . Thu-Supply of Sleepers. Mr. J. Burnett, Chief Engineer of Working Railways, gaw particulars as to tho average consumption of timber for sleepers during the last fifteen years. At present the Department wore Powellising •about 50,009 sleepers a year. A number of . creasoted sleepers were already in the lines. Tho experience the Department had had with tho creasote process hud been comparatively satisfactory. The process had certainly doubled the life of the soft wood, sleeper. There had, however, been a difficulty in getting creasote here, and the Department had determined to make a trial of the new l'owellising process, which required molasses only—ap easilyobtainable commodity. The cost of creasotiug was about Is. Bd. per sleeper. The timbers used were white pine, red pine, and a smaller quantity of miro. The average lifo of tho creasote sleeper was 10 years. ' although there were somo which-had been in tlus ground for twenty years, as against two for untreated white pine and about seven for untreated rimu. He used as jnany jnrrah sleepers as they could T>errmado tho Department to import. "Nothing had yet touched jarrah in general Suitability for sleepers. Ferro-concreto • had not yet been tried for sleepers by the Department. The cost was prohibitive, and the material was not so suitable for sleepers as a more elastic-material like wood._ Australian hard-woods '\vero now reaching such «. price that it had becom-o economical to use steel'for stringers, and they were increasing the uso of steel very largely. It was impossible yet to pass nn opinion on the Powellising process. The company were really . only experimenting. The process did not affect tho transversa strength of tho 'timber, nor did 'it prevent tho timber from warping, splitting,' and shrinking. The Powellising process Had had tho effect in Australia of making the timber impervious to tho "white ant. but experience here, had shown that fungi thrived on 'the treated timber. It had been proved to his satisfaction that timber felled in the winter did not warp and split as summer-felled timber did. The Department had tried to havo all their limber felled in the winter, but had jiover been entirely successful.

Bad Results of Deforestation. Mr. C. A. Cotton, Lecturer on Geology nt Victoria College, gave evidence as to the rrsults of reckless clearing of forests. The first result of the clearing of slopes ivas tho loss of the soil by erosion, alter t,lio tree roots had died. The second result was the filling of tlio-river-beds with deposit, which, combined with tlio more rapid running, of the .water off tho bare- hills, caused Hoods •on the asricultnr.il land in tho lower reaclies of tho river. In the case of navigable rivers, the deposits in tho bed of tlia river had in foiiiie countries considerably impeded navigation.

1 Mr. W. IT. -Field -read a- .statement to the Coiiimis-ion rn'ging that forests in the watersheds of rivers should not bo felled. He made special reference to the Waikanae River, at the h'.vad of which land wan cleared which was not worth more than .i'j per acre, lin.t (he clfect of this clearing was to enuse the river to carry off in ' flood' timfs valuable agricultural land, lower down in. li.ii course, worth .£lO per acre. Much of the clearing also had not served any useful purposi', in that the land could not b? c.'Fectivcly farmed, and was very *:>on onvelopt'd in the second growth. The clearing of forest was robbing the native birds of l-';eii- raturn? habitat, and was rapidly compassing fchoir destruction. He suggested also that tlie State slmit,ld ba iji«i:;> neiiyo in the arresting of tlia spread of sand dune areas by plantrtig them out with suitable trees, ■and that, private plantations should be exempt from taxation.

Damage !;y Deer. Mr. I/. 0. H. Trip]), chairman of the Acclimatisation Society, cvidsnco as to the alleged depredations of deer in the forests. Tie was uwar,> that deer did baik ecrtain trees, but he did not think they did any itauiago fo the timber frees, lie could iiot say from his own knowledge whether tho killing out of th;e undergrowth by 'the clcor and Ihe let tiny in of sun and wind rendered the f'orc-i itioro o.n"u to the ravages of fire. Probably it would l;i- advisable to shut certain areas against deer, provided all other animals, such as goafs, pigs, and wild cattle, v.'ero also killed out. in tlioso areas. He admitted that deer had been allowed to mu.dipjy too rapidly, but the reason was that the sceieti"o had had little experience, and ihey had been short of tho necessary funds to pay for shooting out the herds. Deer did n. certain amount of harm, nnd jh some orchard districts, such as Nelson, it rnitfht bi» v;isc to remove the protection from the deer altogether. He hoped the Commission would recommend that some bush, certainly all the bush, not ncec.-sarily Umber bush, in Otago and Canterbury, should be preserved, in order t<i ?ayo tho native birds from extinction. Private sanctuaries, ho thought, should bo'froo from taxation. Ho thought also that the areas reserved by tho Government closo to tho • ylucji

were continually being ravaged by lires, accidental or otherwise, be protected ii' it were made the duly ot Government inspectors, acclimatisation society rangers, and policemen to supervise them.

.Mr.' Murdoch: It might bo a useful duly for our army of J.i'.'s. .... Air. 'George t'orcival -Non fon. Assistant-Undcr-Secretary lor Internal Affairs, said that tlio reports ot' damage done by deer dealt mostly with orchards and ether artificial plantation, but there had been complaints of damage being done to SUitc reserves. To grant permission to shoot deer on reserves where lliey were doing damage wouhl create a dihiculty, owing to t'he regulation prohibiting Hits use of firearms on scenic reserves. An amendment of the law would be required. There might be difficulty also about confining deer to certain areas, outside of which they could lie killed, for deer might be driven or scared off the sanctuaries, and . slaughtered indiscriminately. At the sanio time it would bo necessary to remove the protection from deer in certain areas wfiero they were doing serious damage. . This conilucied the hearing of the evidence, and the Commission went into committee. They are required to present their report before tho end of the month.