FORESTRY REPORT.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 November 1921, Page 4

FORESTRY REPORT.

plans for the future. TIMBER AND FARM LANDS. WELLINGTON, Nov. 1. Now Zealand forestry problems and proposals are disclosed in the annual report of the State Forest Service, which was presented to Parliament today. The year under review may be considered, in the words ol the Director (Mr Macintosh Ellis), as the year of stocktaking, of orientation, and of study of the conditions and problems incidental to a sound and business-like administration, and of the procedure and modus opernndi necessary to forest , management. The year ending .March 1 I! Ist., P)-J2, will he known as the year of establishment and application while the year ending March Hist., 11)2.1. may he known as the year of Irnition and results. I After traversing many other topics. I the report proceeds : It is obvious that the problem of assuring the present and future timber supplies of this Dominion must be solved through the conservation anil re-establishment oi forests in the indigenous Forest regions, anil not rhielly by the artificial formation of exotic tree plantations. Von are therefore recommended, sir. to secure the dedication of every available acre of Crown forest land as provisional State forest. Reasoned and ettnsi'ioiis lioi'st ,-itiitrol will assure th,. fullest utilisation of the residual virgin supplies, and permit ol a competont ehissilieation of the land, as to whether it is rhielly valuable for settlement or for forestry. It is recognised that forests were made for men. and not men for forests, and Urn r<»_ ordination therefore neeessmy between the settlers’ (funner?) interests, and those of the millers and others u<ers of forest products, will he carefully balnneed. Tin* forest service is very much

alive to the call for more land for set

tlem.ent, lienco all forested lands, chiefly valuable for agriculture, will be milled first (other things being equal) and handed over to the bands Department. The*re are several hundred thousand acres of Crown forest still iinsubjeeted to competent- forest administration. Those areas of undodicated and unalienated Crown forests, carrying many hundred millions of feet, are situated in North Auckland. Mamikau Ila tea ii. King Country. Taranaki, the Crewera district, the ranges Iroin Lake Taupo to Wellington, along the eastern slope of the Southern Alps.

from thu Wait an river headwaters southwards to Southland, the Catlins river County in Otago, and in cer-

tain parts of Nelson and Westland provinces. Success in securing efficient

and economical results from tbe application of forestry to your State forests can only be attained by unity of control. There must be only one authority managing State forests. At present there are several. Von are recommended to secure tin* functioning of one authority, and one only, and that is the State Forest Service, which is tin* one instrument equipped to deal with forestry. Continuiti.v of policy is vital to the practice of forestry, and you are therefore recommended sir. to secure the oxptession of your forest policy in Forest- Act, thereby crystallising a definite programme of State forestry action, at least for a working period of five to ten years. Your forest policy and programme will only make such progress as is possible by the operations of trained lorest technicians. One year has now he»*n

lust in providing educational facilities. You arc advised, sir. to establish n SYhool of Forestry without delay.

Two of the most important- forest conservation regions, ninmly tin* Wellington region, which embraces Hawke’s Bay, Wellington, and Taranaki proving es. aiul the Xelson-M aii Ibo rough i'4'gioii. which includes these two provinces, are still without conservators of forests. The forest research and experimental programme is h»*ing sadly hampered through lack' of a trained forest investigator. Yon arc advised to fill these three posts at the earliest possible opportunity, in order that our constructive programme may he kept in line with our administrative activities. You are advised, sir, that the greatest enemy to successful forest management in New Zealand is tin*. I*nt il and unless this arch enemy can Ik* controlled no forest plans are worth the paper they an* written on. You are recommended to provide full and adequate powers in the Forest Act for the use of the forest service in dealing with this serious and grave danger to New Zealand’s forest heritage.”