A POLICY NOT UNDERSTOOD

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 224, 16 June 1919, Page 4

A POLICY NOT UNDERSTOOD

- It is only fair to recognise that Sir Francis Bell is at a heavy disi advantage in meeting protests like that made a few days ago by the Wcstland County Council against the preliminary steps it has thus far been possible to take in forest conservation. Although ho is Minister of Forestry, he has not yet been able to organise his infant Department or obtain the expert assistance without which it is impossible to give practical shape to a working forest policy. As to the broad lines on which that policy must'run, the Minister has been admirably advised by a forester of the higheststanding; Mn. D. E. Hutchins, but it still remains to carry out a detailed demarcation of the forests and place them under expert management. The only forest in the Dominion .which has thus far been demarcated on scientific lines is Waipoua, in North Auckland, which was demarcated by Mr. Hutchins as an object-lesson and demonstration of forest possibilities. Elsewhero, there is no direct and detailed guidance from expert foresters. This means that except in so far as the process is hindered by the reservations which are now made a subject of complaint, the Dominion is exposed to a heavy continuing loss by the wasteful destruction of a- wealth-producing capital asset which cannot bo replaced except at heavy and almost prohibitive cost. Sir Francis Bell stated on Thursday that steps had been taken to secure the services of a trained forester, who would be selected in England. Provided he does all that is possible to speed the appointment of a suitable man, ho can do little else meantime than impose such tentative reservations as have occasioned an outburst of criticism in Westland.

When his Department is fully organised and in working operation the Forest. Minister, snoulcl have little difficulty in securing full approval of his policy, least of all in Wcstland, which, as the region containing a very great part of the valuable forests left to the Dominion, has everything to gain from tho institution of a sound forest policy. The protest of the Wcstland County Council is so obviously based upon misunderstanding that it is hardly necessary to traverse it in detail, but one or two of the contentions it raises may be touched upon, if 'only for the sake of pointing out how complete tho misunderstanding is. Tho county chairman spoke of "impending injury to the district by limiting the progress of settlement, and loss of revenue to the local body, as well as crippling industrial development." These fears are illusory. Forestry may be summed up as the growth and milling of the greatest possible amount of timber in areas that are suitable for nothing else—i.e., land that would give poorer returns on being cleared and worked in some other way than if it were cultivated and worked as permanent forest. It is on these lines that most European countries have devoted from twenty per cent, to one-quarter of their total land area to forest, and worked it with enormous profit generation after generation. Forestry will not impede settlement in AVestland because under a sound forest policy no land will be preserved as forest, in Westland _ or elsewhere, that is capable of being turned to some more profitable use. On the other hand such a policy will bring immense benefits in its train. It will open a wide field of _ employment, and as time goes on in Wcstland alone thousands of forest workers and settlers will be established in permanent homes and under conditions quite as good as are open to the average run of settlers engaged in ordinary rural pursuits. All possible emphasis should be laid ujjon the factor of permanence. Ii matters were allowed to take the same course in Wcstland as in other parts of the Dominion it _would not be long before the last milling forest had disappeared, and the province would be left with a great area of comparatively barren lands of little value for the purposes of ordinary settlement. The Westland Commissioner of Crown Lands estimated a year or two ago that at the present rate of cutting the milling timbers of the province (chiefly rinni and white pine) would be exhausted in about twenty years. Under a forest policy lands suited to the purpose (generally speaking, the very poorest lands) will be maintained as permanent forest, giving an annual yield of timber for all time, and this yield can be vastly increased, by cultivation, in comparison with what it is now possible to obtain from the forests in their virgin state. Instead of strangling progress in Wcstland or in other parts of tho Dominion to which it applies a forest policy on right lines will establish on a permanent and assured basis sawmilling and subsidiary branches of industry which in existing conditions are doomed to early extinction. It is noteworthy, also, that good forestry involves \i maximum development of roads and other transport facilities, and in this and other ways greatly benefits other forms of rural industry. Had they seen the report on Waipoua (the only Dominion forest demarcated) prepared by Mb. Hutchins, the

authors of the Westla-nd protest would not have fallen into the error of assuming that a methodical forest policy implies injury to the timber industry. The first important step Mr. Hutckins recommends in reference to AVaipoua is the cutting of about £500,000 worth of ripe timber which that forest The essential aim of the forester is to make timber available, ancl increase the output,, but this is to be done by working, as distinct from destroying, forests. The Westland County Council is, of course, on sound lines in advocating railway extensions and harbour improvements to facilitate the working of the forests. Such undertakings arc part and parcel of a comprehensive forest policy. If it looks into the facts without prejudice the council will soon find ample cause to reverse its present opinion of the forest legislation and the prospects it opens.