FORESTRY SCHOOL

Hokitika Guardian, 20 July 1921, Page 4

FORESTRY SCHOOL

A COMMISSION’S FINDING

CHRISTCHURCH, July 16

The finding of the Royal Commission that took evidence in 1913 is all in la vour of the establishment of the School of Forestry in Canterbury. Dealing with this point yesterday, Mr R. Nairn said : “When a School of Forestry is established in New Zealand, it will be related to the planting ol exotics, and its application to the regeneration of our native forests will be limited. The Royal Commssion set up in 1913 found that New Zealand native trees could not be satisfactorily rc-aflorcstcd. Therefore it is not a .strong argument for any district to claim that the School should bo established within its boundaries because it contains standing native forests, lit the evidence lenlerod before the commission, it was rot once suggested that, the kauri was

capable of being re-afforested. Sugestions for re-a(lores!ation were con.'uied tu the totnrn and the puriri. and even these were discounted by the commission which specially recommended the planting of larch. Finns insignis. Finns larieio, Finns pondoroso, Abies Douglassi, and various kinds of Australian gum. Personally. 1 teal that the Royal Commission, having found definitely that our indigenous trees cannot be planted successfully from the timber supply point of view, and that exotics are the trees to plant, it follows that wba we have to do is to consider which exotics are the host to plant. Finns insignis will grow well anywhere in New Zealand, and inaiiv of the gums will grow in any district with success and with profit. But larch, Abies Douglassi ('Oregon pine), Abies excelsn (Baltic pine.i. till particularly valuable trees, require an abundance of moisture, and to get the best results they will have to be planted where they get the rainfall they need, in the case of some of the spruces, which are subject to red mite when grown under drv conditions, there must be a cold climate and plents ot moisture. All these trees, tlserelore.

will respond to the conditions prevailing on both sides of the Southern Alps. We have, in the colder and wetter districts of Canterbury many fine plantations of these particular tie s, having

grown to a good height and carryoig profitable crop ot timber. In the North Island, except in a few of the coldest

>ortions, these trees can not be grown

and. generally speaking, in the North Island, exotics of any value wall be limited to one or two species. In the South Island practically all exotics will tind conditions favourable to their

grew tli. “Personally I do not want to discount the North Island view. I recognise that their claim from the horticul-

tural standpoint is sound, but, from

the afforestation standpoint, 1 think Canterbury can claim that it is easily die most suitable locality for the school. I have no sympathy with any suggestion that the School ol forestry should bo only theoretical. The Chair of For-e-try should be combined with a nursery school, where practical work would be dime. That would bring profitable results.* The raising of trees is only one side of the question. Other subjects

taught at the Victorian School of Forestry, near Ballarat, are English, arithmetic, algebra, botany, geology, chemistry, physics, and surveying.