SAVING THE TIMBER

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 157, 29 March 1920, Page 4

SAVING THE TIMBER

\ PROVISIONAL STATE FORESTS j 3 Crown lands and national endowment 3 lands of n total area of 1.G00.C00 acres ' have been declared "provisional State : j forests in last, week's Gazette, Other areas amounting to not less than 1,500,000 ' acres hnvo still to be proclaimed. The ' 1 Forestry Department has the, arrangement in hand, and will issue the ncces- ' sarv nolicps-shortly. The areas covered bv tho nrbvisiouu! proclamations will be. ; ndded to tho provisional State forests and ! actual State forests already in the hands „ of the Department, so (hat the Chief Forestry Ollicor and his assistants me going to have, several millions of acres of land ■ on which to begin their operations. Tho issue of a notice declaring that a block of land is provisional State forest does not. mean Hint the. area is withdrawn from settlement. Much of this land, as a matter of fact, will eventually ] bo returned to the Lands Department for settlement purposes. The Forestry De- ] partment. with the assistance of tho . Lands Department, is applying ,the provisional reservation to all bush-clad .. Crown And endowment land, in order to ensure that when the question of settlement is raised, the marketable timber on 3 the land shall not. be wasted. > The Min- " ister of Forestry has stated that lamb, 3 suitable, for .settlement will not be re- ,' tained as national forest. Lund unsuitable for settlement will continue to be * held bv tho Forestry Department, and ' will be brought under the control of tho | : forestry officers, with a view to tho systeniatic development of 'its timber reJ sources. Timber worth many millions of pounds ' has been wasted in New Zealand owing , to the practice of putting farmers on s tn bush land without making provision ' for the. utilisation of the trees when felled. The custom of the farmers has - been to clear the land by burning, and 1 it is notorious that not merely timber 1 trees, but also tho more valuable woods a used for fino cabinet-making and other 1 purposes, hnvo been ruthlessly destroyed. 1 The provisional reservations over the 1 bush-clad lands remaining at the disposal of. the State will mako it possible B for the Forestry Department to seo that t timber is not wnsted in eases where its ! ulilisatiim is possible. Tho Department e mav arrange for the cutting of the mar- - ketable timber in advance of settlement, ' or it may advise the farmer-how to go 1 about, his clearing operations without s. wasting one of the finest crops that the 1 land will ever produce. s 'Die dissemination of knowledge about New Zealand's (roes will be one of the s tasks of the Forestry Department. It is ' a remarkable fact that some of the most s beautiful and valuable timbers to be r found in the. Now Zealand forest have 0 been almost entirely wasted in the past - owing t<» (lie practice, of confining mill, i insr to a few well-known varieties. The i Droeess of destruction has gone so far e in mnnv instances that limbers of benuf tiful grain and colour,! for which n ready V export market could have, been found, d have censed to be available except in Mnall ouantities. But there is no reas son whv 'the fancy woods should con--1 tinue to be wasted, or why totara, rimu, . matai, tawa, and other -varieties should I continue to be converted into smoke and - ash when frown lands are being prepar- - ed for occunation.