THE PASSING OF OUR FORESTS

Hokitika Guardian, 9 October 1920, Page 4

THE PASSING OF OUR FORESTS

A- i’ZRIOUS PROBLEM. ■ SIGGESTIONo FOR RE-PIiANTING. (By W. li. Skinner). 'i'.Lo tuiimviiig 'papef by Mr w. H.~ Skinner, forluel'ly -Commissioner Of C'ronn Lands lor till' Citilleilkiry district, was read before I*l6 Scifiiicie Culigross at Christchurch. Mr Sktiuidr lids been familiar with tiie He>v Zealand lnisli from his boyhood, and has bad valuable experience as Crown Lands j Commissioner in various parts of the Dominion of the methods of administratirn of the forestry branch. His opinions are therefore of great value, and it is of. interest to find that he differs from some authorities who hold that New Zealand trees grow as rapidly under forestry conditions as exotic timber trees.

The wholesale denuding of a very large proportion bf the forest Iti'Cit >(i this Dominion of its original covering, and the many serious problems that have consequently arisen and are ldtitiling up threateningly before us, and which must be dealt with in the near future, is causing widespread interest. The position is-, constantly under reviewby the I’ress of the Dominion, and the announcement made that a new Depnrttnen't of forestry would be established, has created fresh interest and raised fiew, hopes amongst the small hand of enthusiasts whose persistent efforts for the development of a definite scheme of forest preservation have unfortunately counted for little against the overpowering odds of vested interests and political dodgery. That tiie clearing of many scores of thousands of acres of forest lands was necessfty so as to admit of the full development of the fertile and responsive soils .of these Islands admits of no argument. It is the appalling and criminal waste that so often aecimipatiicd this clearing which is to be deplored. Many hundreds of millions of feet of the finest milling timber have gone lip in smoke in the” rough and wasteful methods adopted by the hush settler in clearing his “section.” The very land laws made this destruction imperative, as tlie bush selector ha<: 1 and' still has to “clear” every year a certain percentage of his area. No (iiscrijniuation was made between Valuable timber,and mere bush of no particular mercantile value. The grlat timber or milling areas of New Zealand are a thing of the past. There are still isolated forests here arid there, in which a considerable amount of timber is still standing, such as that of the Vest Coast of the South island. This latter, which was'generally considered td be the Eldorado of future New Zealand timber cutters, is by the last reports of the Lands and Survey Department (report for year ending March 31, i 917) stated to have only 20 years’ cutting at ii very modest rate. (This stateriidiit has been corrected since). THE OLD BUSH.

The statement of these facts leads one to look back and conjure up the recollection of the country as it appeared only 50 years ago, when the “forest primeval” covered the face of the land. The great forest of the middle and southern portions of the North Island streachcd from Cape itgnioilt on the west to Table Cape (Mahia Peninsula), broken only by ail insignificant area. It extended practically to the shores of Cook Strait on the one hand, and away to and beyond Raglan Harbour northwards on West Coast and past the East Cape and into the Bay of Plenty on the East Coast. Fifty years ago the fringes only of this great forest had been touched here and there by the pioneers of destruction. Now, alas, it is only in scattered and isolated patches such as the middle reaches of the Wanganui and Mokau Rivers and the Urewera country flinging the great inland lake of "Waikare Moana, or in the magnificent national park surrounding Cope Egmont, that one can obtain a notion of tiie grandeur of the original New Zealand forests of the North. With the destruction of the forest has followed as a natural sequence the disappearance of the native fauha. To those of us who remember the wealth of bird life in the New Zealand bush 50 years ago, it is sad indeed to contemplate the present condition. Birds that roamed in almost countless numbers and made the woodland resound with their joyous outbursts of song, are now almost as rare as tile hioa and notoris.

The milling forests of New Zealand have almost ceased to be. There remains, however, a considerable area of lion-milling bush, covering the and 'higher country of botii islands, i iie preservation of high and broken bush-covered country should be insisted upon for climatic purposes. As already stated, the whole land, except where conditions of soil or climate were antagonistic, was tree covered. This extensive forest lias now been enormously reduced, and indeed rightly to a very great extent, in order to meet the wants of settlement. There has, however, been too much unnecessary destruction which has extended to the steep slopes of hills and mountains and even to the upper altitude htllits of the forest; Thus the head waters of many streams are no longer surrounded by forests, and the watersheds of the larger rivers are by no means so efficiently protected as was originally the ease.' These mountain forests, which in nearly every instance occupy comparatively worthless ground and contain no milling timber, should he zealously protected, nor except under the most exceptional circumstances should they he interfered with; tfliis especially applies to the sources of the principal rivers of Canterbury, which -rise in the Southern Alps. NEED FOR AFFORESTATION. The old order has passed, or is passing so rapidly that it scarcely now counts. In 20 years time at the utmost the milling of the indigenous forests of New Zealand will cease. Wlmt lies before us? The reply to this surely is to rehabilitate the denuded country with a now covering of vegetation. This can only he done effectively and to any purpose by the State taking a real live control of the matter, and, putting aside firmly all political and vested interests, tackle the business with determination and scientific thoroughness. Up to the present the afforestatihg undertaken bv the Government has only been a half-hearted effort. Time is pressing and the timber shortage not

billy affects tills country, blit pfaeti- 1 cally the whole world is In the market. 1 Since 1890, wlieh tiie State initiated its nlforeslntliig scheme, the tired, planted lip to March 31, 1917, amounts to 29,992 acres or roughly a yearly average of Id2o aelfcs. Of the total area dealt with 20,169 acres Wiis in the North Islitlid, and 9,81)3 acres iii the South Island. IViibh it is considered how despetdtfel.V near Wc are to a tltnhdr iainlhb, tiie rate at which the tree planting is being eilffied oiit is absurdly slow, one might almost say criminally slow, and a tremendously more vigorous programme should be entered upon | when the re-organised Department of I Forestry is started upon its way. ' Tiie Government has recently laid a report prepared by an outside expert j on the question of afforesting in New I Zealand. The expert, I understand, made it strong proiiouncerhcnt -its to afforesting purposes. With ibid I disagree. My experience hovering a long, period of dose observation over the native fiord, convinces me that the indigenous tries are not by any means , as suitable for this purpose as'certain of the imported ones. The finding of thd “Boyal CdUnliission bn Forestry” Which reported in 1911, states tile case accurately and Cbhciseiy ill thit connection and I quote Here in full. At page XliY, paragraph No. 7 df thd report, under the heading Of ‘Ufisuitability of i ndigenous Tf-ecs for Afforesting Ftii'poses”. ! ‘Turing our investigations Ve have been, frequently urged to recommend tiie planting of one Or other df the in- ' digeiious trees. TliCrc Is, iii fact, a generdl belief tiirotiglidut New Zea-. land tliat the planting of certain kinds, especially the totara alul pilTiri, trtiiild he fcoiiihieicialiy profitable. This idea j is altogether erroneous. Without exception, the timber trees are of much slod'ef growth than those used in forestry operations the World over. A totara may lie 500 years old or upwards. EvCii English oak, which tve consider too slow for forestry purposes, Will grow twice as fast as ptiriri when both are Undef tiie same tonditirms. This comparatively slow growth of the trees, together with various other reasons that need not be detailed, place the forests of New Zealand in a different category from those of Europe and America, sihee it is quite out of tiie /question to practise any method of forestry that depends upon their rapid regeneration. The Timber Commission gives practical and therefore valuable advice as to the trees suitable for afforesting work in New Zealand. They specially recommend the following for extensive planting: Finns radiata, better known as the Insignis, Finns Laricio (Coi'sican pine), Filins ponderosa (heavy pine), Ddugiasii (Oregon pine), various varieties of poplar, and such Australian gums as have proved to be the best suited to the localities to he planted. With legat'd to tiie poplars, these were recommeiided for the double purpose of acting as fire-brefiks aticl producing timber. As for the gums suitable, there are many of these thriving in various localities in New Zealand which are obviously suited to the local conditions and from which seed can be readily lirocufcd. Besides those pines mentioned above, the commission goes on to say it is desirable to grow soifie that wOuideprodilcc fine-grained timber, suitable for tiie finest class of work. For this purpose the Weymouth pine (Finns Strolms) is highly recommended since it is recognised as the most valuable pine of the eastern United States. Trial planting of this tree is doing well at Rotorua. They also recommend a trial lie made of Pinus excelsa, whioh is considered to yield the most valuable timber of any of the Himalayan pines. ' The Austrian pine and the Australian blackwbod are mentioned US being adapted for planting on sand dunes in addition to the all-ifripoftant pirius radiata. i NATIVE TREES. Tints the Royal Commission, now for some pefsorial expressions: With regard to the recommendations made recently,.to the Government that in any Heiv scheme of afforesting the indigenous' trees shotild be given preference, it would be well to consider what chance of success would be likely to follow such action. The king df our New Zealand timber trees is the kauri; its wood rivals in quality the best . of tiie world’s timber products, so that if there is a native tree that should be planted, this is the one. But what chance is there of the kauri coming into its own again. It has two pronounced disadvantages to my mind ; t first its geographical limitations niul secondly its extreme slowness of growth and development. This tree does not thrive in its natural state south of, say, Taimmga on-the east coast and the modth of Waikato River on the west const, North Island. \lt therefore could not he adopted for afforesting in any part of the Dominion roughly south of Rotorua, so that quite apart from its extreme slowhess of growth its planting coiild billy be carried out over a small portion of the North Island. Take the puriri as another example of our more valuable timber which it is t-laimed should be used for nfforestatiug. This is certainly one of the strongest and most durable of all New Zealand timbers, a wood of beautiful texture and adapted for all sorts and conditions of utility. Here again we are faced by its geographic and topographic difficulties. It does not flourish further sout than the 39tii parallel of latitude; roughly; New Plymouth and Napier. But this is.-not all, even within that circumscribed area -it only grows along the coastal belt, roughly six or seven miles from the sea. There is also in the case of the ptiriri tiie fatal objection of slowness in development. t do not say that the kaiiri and the puriri should not be planted, hut wlmt I do maintain is that they caiihbt be considered in any great scheme of afforesting that may be brought down iii the future where rapidity of reproduction is essential. They caii only be considered in a subsidiary sense. Another of the native forest trees of primary value is the totara. Unlike the kauri and puriri this fine timber flourishes from the North Cape to the Bluff. It has its soil and locality limitations however, as for instance the Canterbury Plains, and lal’ge areas of Central Otago. Its slowness of growth has already been referred to earlier in these notes. Like the kauri and ptiriri it should he considered in a general

scheme of afforesting, but only in u minot degree. The riinu (red), inntai (black) kaliikatea {White) arc distributed fairly evenly over the whole Dominion, but fire probably set’ll at their best in the middle and southern parts of the North Island. Although having no geographical liinits they certainly would be barred from general adoption for afforesting quite apart fiom the length of time required for their development. The riniu, inatai, and kahikatca reqdirc soil environment, and' ,climatic conditions that are altogether lacking in the areas over which afforesting is urgently required. These trees were the principal feature of the great forests of the mid and southern belts of the North Island, and the ritiftiifeHiVitd sotittiei'ii extremities of the Soitth Island that were so eagerly Sought after for settlement and are now flourishing farm lands, mainly dairy cotflitry, find the value of which makes it prohibitive to consider its being re-entered upbn for timber planting purposes. aFsTFaliangums. This short review as to tiie non-suit-ability of our principal indigenous timber trees as compared with the imported article rilay be brought tu a close by a simple comparison with the difference in growth with the native trees and rapid development of the Australian gums. The wonderful growth and quick maturity of the Biue gum (E. j globulus) is so well known that it is not necessary to draw your attention to it here. But take as a comparison to a > guifi, not so well known but equally 1 well adapted to our New Zealand re--1 quiCements, the eucalypt known .as the i E. Macarthuri. I now quote from a letter Written to the Boyal Commission 1 on Forestry (referred to above) by the ! Rev J.' B. Siinmoiuls, Wesley Training College, Auckland. states: “Just years ago the late Mr John Reynolds imported several small parcels of eucalyptus seeds from Sydney and sowed them at ‘Trecarne,’ Cambridge. The two that have made the largest growth and are most valued by the present proprietor are the stringy-bark and the eucalypt now identified by Hie Government botanist of New South Wales as E. Macarthuri. (Here follows a minute description of the tree). In close plantations it develops a tall stem free of blanches and of even thickness. Some of the trees at ‘Trecarne’ have reached a girth of Bft -to 10ft and a height of 100 ft. The timber is sufficiently fissile to he easily split with maul and Wedges. The heart wood is. of a pale red colour, and from an early stage in the tree’s life forms 75 per cent of the whole bulk of the stem. Fencing posts split out of the-eucalypt 15 to 20 years have tire heart wood quite sound. From a'thinly planted area of less than three acres there have, already been taken 3000 fencing posts, 250 stock yard rails and 200 gate posts, besides saplings and firewood, and the still standing trees will yield twice as many more.” In another plantation which Air feimnioiids refers to'as having been planted in 1884 (lie wrote in 1913) he says: “From the trees of this species, ‘E. Macarthuri,’ in this plantation, which' has an area of only a quarter-acre, there have been taken out and sold 4000 fencing posts, ten piles 75 feet long for bridge construction, and some other large trees, the net receipts for which have amounted to £l2O, and it is estimated that the trees still standing will yield an equal product. From this experience it is claimed that an acre of E. Macarthuri properly planted and grown would, when 30 years old, he worth £IOOO on the stump, while long before that the triminingi would have paid working expenses. Against such evidence as this it seems to file futile to advocate on a grand scale the re-afforesting of our waste areas with the indigenous timber trees of the coiiilti’y. The main plantation would consist of foreigti trees selected from various regions of species known to flourish in New Zealand. Subsidiary planting could and should lie made of otir own mote valuable native timber tfees in certain favoured localities. v SOME INTERESTING FIGURES. It is calculated that in a gum plantation, propetly set out, and with tlm ample spaqg of 18 feet between the plantings, a crop of 134 trees to the acre can be grown. A conservative .estimate of the dimensions of the timber after 40 yeai-s’ gfoWth would he two feet in diameter at base—waist high—and 15 iiieheS at 50 feet lip the bole. Such tree’s trtiiild elit mighty 1000 superficial feet. Thlowing out the odd 34 trees as malforiiis or not maturing, we get a yield for the remaining 1100 trees of 100,000 superficial feet per )icre in 40 years. (Information supplied by Mr Robinson, late Chief Government Forester for South Island). In Australia, 35 year-old plantations of P. Insignis have yielded 75,000 feet of sawn timber per acre, exclusive of firewood (note from E. Phillip Turner, secretary forestry branch, Lands and Survey, Wellington). There are many plantations of this adaptable tree in this Dominion that would give heavier yields even than this. At Hororata, Canterbury,, on a dry and expose ( d position, the Selwyn Plantation Board) during my term as-chair-man, let bn royalty for milling a mixed plantation of insignis and other foreign pines, oflks, gums, etc., covering roughly 73 acres. This plantation was far from mature, not half-grown in fact, but it hacl beeh partly levelled by a heavy north-west gale. In this condition it was sold for milling at a low royalty—6d per'loo sup. feet. The official retlittts show the total nmotiilt received in royalties at £1169 10s lOd, made up as follows: Sawn timber cut from plantation, i;69(5,833 sup. feet; royalty, £llOO 19s Bd; fife wood, 1413 cords, producing £53 18s 3d, and 1117 mine props, sdld fbf £4 13s Td. These returns give an approximate average of 22,024 superficial feet of sawn timber per acre. Rut a considerable quantity of standing timber was left untouched by the millers, ill terms of their agreement with the Plantation Board. It wotdd be no exaggeration to say that a well grown hhd matured—4s years’ growth —insignis plantation, developed more faVburnMe conditions thaii the one just quoted, would produce easily from 60,000 to 80,000 sup. feet per acre. Compare this with the production of our indigenous timbers. No New Zealand timber, trees «an approach such yields as these. In certain of the more

favoured localities, the kahikatea (white pine) Juts been stated to produce, on occasions, 50,000 superficial feet to the aero. These trees would represent a growth of at least 200 years. In other special localities, the kauri forests have yielded heav ly, but only in isolated instances docs this obtain, and then only after two or three cen : tnries of growth. The average yield of red ami black pine, the largest producers in the aggregate of - A the New Zealand timber trees, did not go above from 10,000 to 15,000 feet (possibly less) per acre. Mr Hutchins has stated that the kauri is fit for timber when the* tree is 100 years old. This statement is not backed by'reliable evidence, and personally I cannot accept it as the correct position. With 'regard, to the considerable quantity of this is being used for toy-making in Christchurch, , the present supply 'coming from a small portable sawmill at Bunvood. The Lombardy poplar is the least valuablo of all the poplar timbers. The timbers of P. Serotina (black Italian poplar) P. Alba, and P. Caneseeno, are the most valuable, being largely used in France and the Low Countries for butter-boxes, and owing to their toughness, for the.bottom of carts, waggons, barrows, etc. The poplar would thrive luxuriantly on sliingle river beds, and there are thousands of acres of such lands in the South Island, at present only a harbour for noxious weeds, awaiting development. What bettei use could they be put to than for producing timber. DUSKY~BAY CLEARING.

In conclusion I would quote the case of the Dusky Bay clearing, made by Captain Cook during his second voyage, to show how slow is the growth of oui New Zealand Timber trees. I first quote a short extract from Captain Cookes journal, and then give briefly the evidence of the expert bushmen who have visited Pickersgill Harbour in latef years : Pickersgill Harbour, Dusky Bay, April 1773.—“1n the course of a few days a small part of us bad cleared away the wood from a surface of inoie than an aefo. We felled tail timbertrees, which but for ourselves had crumbled to dust] with age; our sawyers cut tliefn into planks, or we split them into billets for fuel. We re-em-barked all our instruments and .utensils and left no other vestiges of our residence than a piece of ground from whence we had cleared the wood.” Mr Richard Henry, the then caretaker of Resolution island, Dusky Bay, visited and photographed the spot on December 14, 1899, 126 years after Captain Cook cleared the timber. He describes the site of the clearing as a big patch on the sunny side of Observation Point, 50 feet above the sea, etc.

Mr H. D. Haszard, Chief Surveyor and Commissioner of Crowii Lands, visited this historic place in December, 1917, and he states that the site of the clearing is plainly discernible to the ordinary busliman by the low growth of bush surrounded oil three sides by the tall forest trees, rimu and others constituting the “forest primeval,” and of which the ground cleared by Captain Cook was part and parcel. Here then we Auive clear evidence that aftei a lapse of 145 years there is no growth exceeding from 30 to 50 feet in and this under the most favourable conditions possible for native flora. In a corresponding period of years three crops of Radiata or .Macarthuri of ma-ture-'’growth wotikt hate been harvests ed. The inference is clear. I could quote similar cases of direct evidence as to the slow growth of the New Zealand forest trees that have come under rjny_own observation in the North Island, if such were required.

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