FOREST POLICY
NEW DIRECTOR'S REPORT
GREAT CHANGES URGED
In his first report, the Director of Forestry Ellis) reviews at length tho existing conditions of indigenous and other forests in the Dominion, and elaliorates comprehensive proposals for their eiticient management on a basis of permanent productivity. -Observing that tho visible supply of timber in the Dominion is variously estimated at from 35,000,000,000 to G0,«!O,OC0,000 superficial feet, he expresses an opinion that within a generation the annual notional ecusumption will probably be 1,000,000,000 feet—considerably more than three times the amount of timber cut in the Dominion during the last financial year., Emphasising the significance of .these figureo, Captain Ellis strongly urges tho necessity of immediate measures to ensure continued supplies. Apart from the organisation of an efficient forest, service, and due provision for the training of forest technicians and rangers, he recommends that economies should be instituted in forest working by the abolition of the present system of royalties on sawn output, and the adoption of royalties based on .the cubic content of the log, ond adjusted (at five year intervals) in proportion to the ruling wholesale price of limber. Whereas the proKent svstom puts a premium on forest waste, 'the new system, it is urged, would offer every inducement to economical working and also add largely to the revenue now collected by the State. As a means of securing continuity of policy, the report nrges that the Forest hervice should be given full ami unhampered control of all details of forest development and administration. Under existing conditions, it is stated, only 25 per cent, of the wood in a forest aero is utilised, whereas in a few years it will be possible to utilise probably more than 05 per cent. Captain Ellis declares that it is quite safe to say tha tho Dominion must aim at developing twelve million acres of forest, or more, if a safety margin is to be attained against high prices and a famine in tor£t products. The repoit elaborates in detail a programme of forest aeve opI ment and extension to be carried out during a period of from five, to seven years. It is proposed that during this period loans should be raised to cover an expenditure of cfi'M.ooo on the organisation and development of indigenous forests, ,£302,000 on the extension of plantations. ,£"00,000 on the acquisition.of forests and forest lands, and .£IOO,OOO in the encouragement of private and local-body planting etc. Captain Ellis estimates that ,1-1 the time the Dominion is consuming 1,000,000,000 feet of timber per annum thirty per cent, of the annual supplies will 'be derived from private, forests and from importations. Timber imports, lie states, will necessarily decline to a ncligible quantity, but he is ot opinion that conditions in this country exceptionally favourable to tree growth make it an exception to the general rule that torestrv can be undertaken only by the State. The growth of trees for special uses in New Zealand, ho remarks, is a sound and remunerative business. While ho looks to private enterprise, assisted and fostered by the State, to provide nearly thirty per cent, of future timber supplies, Captain Ellis assumes that native forests, put into a state of permanent productivity, will yield 60 jier cent, of these supplies and State plantations 10 per cent. One of the proposals advanced is that Native-owned forest lands, when they nre unsuitable for agriculture, should be conserved and worked by. the State -n trust for the Natives.
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Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 289, 31 August 1920, Page 4
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579FOREST POLICY Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 289, 31 August 1920, Page 4
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