FORESTS AND THE COST OF LIVING

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 260, 22 July 1918, Page 4

FORESTS AND THE COST OF LIVING

In one of its recent publications j the New Zealand Forestry League ( observed that- if the public appreciated the fact that a considerable ( area of forest land unsuitable for settlement could be saved, they would insist on the Government preserving it and improving its capacity for timber production. Unfortunately this statement credits the public with a keener and more alert interest than they have ever really displayed in the preservation of our native' forests as a permanently productive asset. Moat people in this country know that our forests are being rapidly and wastefully destroyed, and that for practical purposes they will disappear in a decade or two if the process of destruction is continued. But very few people bother their heads about the matter. This indifference is only made possible by a general failure t'o realise that the preservation or destruction of our remaining forests is a matter closcly affecting the interest;,' of every individual and family in the community. This is true in a double sense. The destruction of forest that would be preserved under a proper scheme of demarcation narrows the field of profitable 'employment. At tho same time, itraises the cost of living to the whole community by making timber, in all the varied forms in which it is used, increasingly scarce and dear. By destroying our forests we not only close the wide field of healthy and profitable employment they might themselves afford, but mark out for destruction the timber-mill-ing industry which, by the standard of the number of hands employed, is at present one of the largest in the Dominion. It should be plain enough to anyone also that if we come to bo entirely, or almost entirely, dependent on imported timber, houses and packing-cases and fuel—to cite only three leading examples of the uses to which wood is applied—will become very much dearer than they are to-day. We are already dependent to a much greater extent than we should be on imported timber, and the cost of living has risen much more, in such ways as have been indicated, and others, thin it would had our native timber supplies been properly conserved and worked by rational methods. We shall suffer much more severely in future if tho haphazard destruction of our forests 'continues. Putting the matter on a basis of' mere self-interest, the only people who can afford to ignore the question ■ of forest conservation arc those for- : tunate individuals who regard a i rise or fall in the cost of . living barometer with easy unconcern.

Had the people of this countryrealised how intimately the exploitation and working of our native forests is connected with the cost of living it is safe to say that a sound

forest policj would liavo been instituted decades ago—a policy under which our forests would have been worked and developed on the same general lines as those of the leading European countries, where vast areas of forest (approximately twenty per cent, of the total land area in cour tries like France and Germany) are permanently maintained, afford employment and provide homos for millions of people, and yield rich returns from generation to generation. Instead, we are still so far behind the times where forestry is concerned that the comparatively lew voices raised in this country on behalf of forest conser-

vation are like voices crying in the wilderness, Evidence on the point was supplied last week at the meeting of the Forestry League, a body which is striving earnestly to awaken tht Government on the one hand and the general public on the other to the importance of doing a |] |] ); may be done to save and make Ihe most of our remaining forest assets. It was shown, indeed, that some tentative steps had been taken towards correcting the. mistakes of the past, as fur as they admit nt correction, but iL was made plain also that much has yet to be done if a really comprehensive reform of forestry methods is to lie accomplished. In his presidential address. Si it Jamms Wilson was able In slate I hat the year's work of Ihe league had not been without good fruit. Me instanced the fact that ft in Fiianois BliLii, who was appointed during the l year as Minister of Forestry—a new

office so far as this country is con- ; u-Tiied—had already taken some ] steps to preserve the remnants of ; kauri forest. The general, demarea- • i-ion of forests' and forest land in ' the Dominion has yet to he begun. J however, and although a Minister of Forestry has been appointed, Ins ap- 1 pointment has yet to be followed by 1 that of an expert qualified to organ-1 ise a Forestry Department and direct its operations. Snt Francis Biii.r, and his colleague, the Minister of Lands (the Hon. D. H. Guthrie), attended the meeting, and apparently both Ministers are in favour of conserving a considerable area of forest on Crown land. Snt Francis, however, held out little hope of early action, and observed that very little reform was _ possible without legislation, and it might be that nothing could be done next session. It is to be hoped that'the Minister will at least make every effort to sccure s'uch authority next session as will enable him to put his Department into working operation. Prompt action is demanded on several grounds. One is that little can be done towards terminating the wasteful destruction of forests until ihe.v have been demarcated. The fact that much time must bo spent in surveying and planning preliminary to actual work in the forestswas strongly emphasised at last week's meeting bv Mr. D. E. Hutciiins, a- scientific forester of long experience in India and Africa who has rendered a notable scrvice to the people of this country by showing how much we have lost by our past neglect of forestry, and how much of our forest wealth may still be saved. It is no doubt impossible that any large amount of public money should be spent on forest exploitation and development until the war is over, but it is necessary that preliminaries of organisation and planning should be take.il in hand forthwith in order that work in the forests may begin as soon as nossible after peace is declared. On its merits the case for prompt action on these lines is of overwhelming strength. It is" obviously right that the wasteful destruction of forests suited by location and in other ways for preservation as a permanent asset should be terminated with all possible speed. At the same time in undertaking this work of national salvage the Government will open an extensive lklcl of employment offering work under excellent conditions to returned soldiers and others after 1 the war.