The Dominion. FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1918. OUR FOREST WEALTH

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 192, 3 May 1918, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1918. OUR FOREST WEALTH

The appointment of Sir Feancis Bell as Minister of Forestry is a welcome indication that serious , attention is at last to be given to tho problem of preserving our _ native forests as a permanent asset, instead of allowing them to bo improvidently squandered and destroyed. Hitherto we have had no Minister of Forestry and no Forestry Department, although four existing Departments have been more or less concerned in affairs of forestry and afforestation. A considerable amount of public money has been spent in planting imported trees, but our native forests—an incomparably more valuable asset than the nest artificial plantations can evor be—have been abandoned to a process of destruction under which, if it is continued, they wjll disappear in the course of anothor generation. Seriously as our forests have suffered under these conditions, there is still timo to institute a sound policy of conservation and development which would greatly increase their present productivity and open a wide field of ■ healthy and profitable employment. These arc tho broad facts which confront tho new Minister of Forestry as ho takes office, and they manifestly demand an enterprising policy of constructive reform. The first thing necessary is that a Forestry Department should bo organised with an expert staff and given the froest possible working 3cope in consorving what is left of our forest wealth. All remaining forest areas in the Dominion must be demarcated, so that destruction may henceforth be confined, so far as forests still under national control aro concerned, to those which by location or otherwise aro unsuitable for preservation, and must bo renroveu in tho interests of ordinary settlement. It is a point to be strongly emphasised that war conditions and tho prospective demands of demobilisation supply reasons for hastening instead of postponing the practical treatment of tho problem of forest conservation. Much of tho preliminary work of a Forestry Dopartmont will necessarily be in tho naturo of survey and investigation and the orderly collation of data. The question of an early expenditure of any largo amount of public monoy in tho interests of forest development is unlikoly to arise. But thoro are excellent reasons for setting up tho Department, and putting it into working operation with the least possible delay. As wo havo pointed out on previous occasious, prompt and comprehensive action is demanded in tho first placo because tho wasteful depletion of our indigenous forests is still proceeding apace. It is demanded also because tho actual initiation of a sound forest policy will open a splendid field of employment in the demobilisation period. Managed as they should ho, the forests will absorb n very largo number of men who have. Ic.irnod Lo lovo an outdoor life and to detest tho drudgery of shop or office; ami even crippled Knldifirs will find health-giving and congenial employment in nurseries n.ml snmo other departments of forest work. To those .considerations-it is to be.

added that the judicious investment of public capital in forest development offers this country an admirable moans ot lucctinp- and ultimately paying- off its heavy war' obligations. _ Striking evidence on this point is presented in a pamphlet, lately issued by the New Zealand Fdrcsbry League. It points oub that tho last Prussian Budget before the. war showed some £7,000,000 gross revenue from the State-managed forests, and £4,500,000 net—the bulk of the balance, £2,500,000, going in wages paid to the men employed in working the forests. Three other Slates—France, Bavaria, and Russia—were getting over £6,000,000 net yearly out o£ their State-owned forests, and a good deal more than this, taking account of all the State-man-aged forests. Regarding possibilities in this country, thc"Tollowing observations arc- made:—

It is thought that it may now bo pos--fiiblo to demarcate, or to redeem, about half a million acres of kauri forest, including cut-out or burnt forest lands— where the forest is capable of restoration at. reasonable, cost. Of this, the pood kauri forest will pay its way and give handsomo returns from now onwards. . . . Whatever the cost of tho war to New Zealand, (bo yearly chnvgo ■ on V\u>. debt v>-\A\ certainly lie \cbs U\wn AOOO.OfIO. So that if/half a million acres of restornblo kauri forest bo now cecured, it will act as an endowment , to eventually entirely cover the cost of I tho war. And what is equally important for i\ r ew Zealand, it will put men on tho la7i(! earning pood w.ojjps and ijiost of them with small holdings of their own, at an average rate of ono ninn per 15 acres. There is no boiler schemo Dossiblo for the occupation of tho poor lrauri lands, and meeting tho cost of this iniquitous war that hns been forced upon us.

Though kauri tkkes pride of pjaco amongst our milling timbers, the halt a million acres of kauri forest which may be preserved or restored represent only a fraction of the total forest resources remaining to thn Dominion, but the particulars just cited in regard to kauri exemplify l.ho immense, possibilities of forest conservation and development _ carried out on a comprehensive scale. All that is necessary in order that these- possibilities may be realised is tliat method and good management should bo substituted for the reckless improvidence that has hitherto obtained. In a foreword to the pamphlet which has been quoted, the president of the Forestry League (Sir James Wilson) observes that Sir Fhaxcis Bell is keenly alive to the. necessity for immediate action if he can but get his colleagues to agree with him, and that M.e. M'assey is pledged to ■ the Forestry Department. This is excellent news, and if the new Minister of Forestry is enabled to shape his policy accordingly the results will be of lasting benefit to the Dominion. Prompt as well as comprehensive action is necessary, both in order that a period may be set to the present wasteful depletion of our forests and that forest development may be given the important placs it undoubtedly ought to take in the demobilisation programme.