FORESTS AND FORESTRY

Hokitika Guardian, 16 October 1923, Page 2

FORESTS AND FORESTRY

FURTHER NOTES ON THE DIRECTOR’S REPORT. XO XIV. “Nay! my lords, ceremony was devised at iirst to set a gloss mi faint deeds.” —Timon at Athens. ‘ ‘ FOR EST ENPKRIM EXT ST AT 1 (>X.” The report says:-—“Forest experiment stations are as necessary to forestry in Now Zealand as are experimental farms in agriculture. Both basic industries utilize land for the production of raw material necessary tor our existence, for to our modern civilisation wood is almost as essential as food and clothing and it advocates a second forest experiment station ill the North Island. It is painful to witness the labour that has been expended in telling those to whom the report is submitted, what an experimental station is needed for.

Reference is made in Hie report lo “the 5,000 acre forest experiment station at Mahinapua, Westland." hi detailing the work which has been done there during the year, it lias evidently been it considerable task to rake up a list worth presenting in the annual report. Amongst other items, “a shed for storing tools’’ is even mentioned. It is seized upon to do duty—“to set a gloss” as ’tweio—and stand in line with the other insignificant items that constitute the year's accomplishments at this station.

Poor little tool-shod ! \\ hat lias it dene to be thus thrust upon tht limelight of it Parliamentary Report-? There is~the same questionable taste hero displayed as that shewn bv Mrs Brown when she insisted on “Dad" putting the empty piano-case on the I rout verandah. The same cheap “swank.” And that’s what kept them so busy. Wo are told too. that “fencing posts and strainers wore cut on the area. We must admit that the statement does not challenge our credulity any more than if it were stated that trees grew ir tho forests. Now if the Service bad claimed to have grown the posts during the time that fencing operations were being carried out. there mbdit have been some justification for recording it; and one could readily have believedlt. The Service deed not have feared that anvone could have found a reason for doubting it-. Ibe statement in Dio report reads like a conundrum with the point broken off. Me give it

up ! In reference to “measurements taken early in 1023 a plot of Pious Radiate'at Tnpanui" the animal increment of growth is given at “308.02 cubic feet per acre." At this rate it- would require only some 38,000 acres of plantations to produce enough timber to make good the 15.000,000 cubic foot per annum, which the report tells us is the rate at which we are eating into our “indigenous forest capital. ’ Now. seeing that our State Plantations now total 44.(310 acres, and that 12,800 acres were planted by private individuals and local bodies last year alone, wo do not appear to lie so near the brink ol a timber famine ns alarmists would haw us believe. Indeed, it would uproar, according to an article contributed to “The Evening Post” of the (itli. Dot. by the Secretary of the K:\wmillci\s' Federation, that, taking the figures given in the Forest Report correct (and these are the result of “The comprehensive Dominion wide survey of New Zealand’s forest resources”), at the- rate at which we are eating op our forest capital, our indigenous forests alone would last over 560 years. A very simple sum based on the figures supplied by the Service verifies the above statement. “S A \ D-DU N E R ECL AM ATI O X EXPERIMENT STATION.” ft is in similar cases tn that, recorded in the report that forest planting has shewn such marked success in other countries, and it is quite refreshing to come across an instaneo where Dm experience gained in other countries lias been used for service in New Zealand. We read:—“Tho basis ol these experiments was the experience gained i 1 cm similar works in other countries; but owing to the gieat ■. ost of erecting palisade fences, the timber (or which would have to lm brought, from a distance and to the incfhcney of log walls, due to the particularly -e----vere"westerly winds, a cheap type ot fence has been made of manuka sc no obtained locally and this fence has proved more successful than me e.-,|<.u-sive palisade type. A less successful fence was one constructed of flax-.ladei-and two fencing-wires, this type Ivung reasonable efficacious and cheap, as flax is obtained in greater quantities t,i me locality than manuka. During the von r ‘gCOlb. of marram-seed were harvested, GO acres were planted with marram-grass, and 52 acres ol sain - fiat were sown with marram-reed. Broadcast sowings of pine, broom, and marram-seed in mixture lias been commenced. the sand surface being strewn with rushes. Experiments are lo be conducted during the coming planting season with a light disc plough, winch it will bo possible to use on at least half the area t> be planted. This vdl great!v reduce planting-costs. Sowing of tree-seeds on prepared spots has Ixon begun, the most successful species being I’inus radiata, with Pimis m''aster second. Of the throe planted experimentally ir 1921. also, , units radiata. is easily the most promising species The exclusion of stock from the reclamation are i for a brief period has bad the ..fleet of promoting remarkably abundant- natural regeneration ol marram-grass aild sedges. During the voar the sand-dune advisory committee, formed of several local residents paid a visit lo the station, and to one o these gentlemen the Service is specially indebted for seeds and cuttings provnlCd Tl,is is about the only instance in the report where we anoenr to have obtained anv serviceable nilormation from outside sources, or without having to delve for it by costlv experiments. , i The next item in the report ileal largely with experiments.