The Hokitika Guardian TUEDAY, SEPT. 13th. 192I. THE FOREST SERVICE.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 September 1921, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian TUEDAY, SEPT. 13th. 1921. THE FOREST SERVICE.

I Ni-:w /kai.ani) is hiessed if that i.** ihe I appreciated word, all things eottsi 1,,r----cd with a Forest Service. It is an cNpensive sei’vin* as these (iovern-»ient I l)c|>artments go, lor they are ail lashj ioned now-a-days on a very costly phm. According to a report* in a t hrislchurch paper last week we were told lhat “valuable work is <al l ied out hy tin* State horests Depai'i nieni j in the forest areas of Westland, with a ' view to obtaining data regarding the

regeneration of felled bush mens. ' T 1 is statement, struck us ns suggesting the Department wns out oil a wild goose chase, tor if n bush nren is felled, it is not. felled wantonly, hut lor use, and linvinp ilisposwl of the hush so fo'lid. the proiiud is used for settlement purposes. Where the lmsli areas are felled and left: to nature, to take their course, lb,' fifty years or more experience in this con n try, to say nothinp of (Outlines of experience in other countries where hush has l>e<m .felled, left us cold as to tliu scientific side of the ipiestion. for nature lias her own way all the world over of healinp the sears which weak imwi imposes on her surface. In the territory of th« great ivnr

nlotie. we lone the records ot how nature i- rapidly covering !l l' the ravages , I war and t lu* hearing destriu i.imi of titauie explosives, hut as the LTiiistehiirell paper- .el'ernil to mil forests being seieiitilieally considered, no hastened tu pi i use the article and on Sail.iday published it. The eolielunions of the scieiilisi leads us nowhere. 'Time was the great faetor,” he said.

“in regeneration. and it "as data, iouardine this faetor that the State Forests Department v.as anxious to obtain. This Ihi t<>r "as prolih'inai! ail, and it was impossihle at present tu -ay v. bat time vas necessary for rutin,,." .lust SO. We cornier, it in the

nr very expensive Forestry Department is to go P 1 I,K ‘ Plead past. If ihe Forestry Departmeiit is established to set nhoiit ,I'e e'-en,-rat i"n of tlm native forests ot Westland, before the Dop.irtnunt P'",tilers timber, even the national dent of New Zealand, enormous as it is Mould not sldliee to pay for the cost ol the experimental process. I low I"HR t|„. , oniitry going to stand for this costly style of proi edill'e f It all very "Ml m treat the lorestry quc..tmii

- i. ntiliially there are avenues i.mug vine!, hi nidi pood ran le' done no «■ "'it |,at n|i I lie lines proposed it is sheel vast.. o| money lor it "ill ut ns m>m here m a pKulieal -"n-e. Iher" are now Hist stores ,l loie-l ■ouniry m Westland. I hose. iln» tm" department inis oirdled '•'■ ivll special lines of demarcation and extemle.l rogtihtlmns. The Departnient is making it more nml inure ililiii nit to -oik L rests of Westland, and so more and more costly will Vrome the commodity for the consumer. The Depafoment appears bent oil rising the cost of timber, nott on making ,t more plentiful lor presell and futme generation.-'. Indeed, hedged round. as timber Molds threaten to he. it wdl become almost impossihle shortly to secure timber areas tor commercial p,oposilions. That- will mean stagnation in an industry in a district teeming, "ith limber i('sources. Westland is a pleat store house of timber, and thi- great asset is to lie locked up by the l'VmiL,lions of the Department lor the h, o, 'lit of posterity. Him long ( the people are going to submit to this jirospeetive state of allairs is a matter which concerns, first, every man. woman and child in Westland, and sceun 1 every man and woman and child in New Zealand, Looking up the conntry stop* imltisirv. st.ML'iiuU** oniorpriso ami dislocates [ho whole commenial hesitmss of the tinihcr trade, «*•;) (‘ssciitial now and always to provide tin* housing tor tin* p» ople.