IMPORTANCE OF FORESTRY.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 March 1924, Page 4

IMPORTANCE OF FORESTRY.

LECTURE BY DR CHILTON

CHRISTCHURCH, March 15

in connexion with tho School of Forestry a lecturo was given by Dr Chilton last evening at Canterbury College, when the speaker stressed the need of preserving the Dominion’s forests and the planting of young

trees. At tho conclusion of tho lecture a motion picture was shown of the kauri industry in Auckland. The film was most comprehensive, showing tho magnificent trees in all the glory of their hundreds of years of existence, the felling, cutting up, carrying on •waterways to the railhead, transport to Auckland, and finally the transformation of the huge logs into timber, which rightly can be claimed to be amongst the best in the world. The film was specially supplied by the State-Forests Service.

Dr Chilton, in his opening remarks, referred to a recently-published article in ‘'The Press,” when a study had been made of the census returns in relation to the need of timber for building of houses. He said that it could be stated generally that New Zealanders lived in wooden houses; in fact, the returns published showed that 91.9 per cent of the houses were of wood. Five years ago the percentage was higher, and right away back in the early days—in 1861—the record showed that of 15,139 houses, only 477 were not of wood. The article had mentioned that 24,099 rooms were needed for the present requirements of the population, according to the standard of the Board of Health. As the population was increasing, and doubtless would continue to increase, the need would grow for more and more timber, for it was safe to say that 90 per cent of flic housed would he of wood.

Timber was required for countless purposes apart from buildings. In addition there was the prospect of a big need for firewood in spite of the growing supply of hydro-electric power. Further, the amount of imports into New Zealand either of wood, or derived from wood for one year was as follows:—AYood pulp £13,3/1, acetic acid £2709, cork £37,758, wooden matches £30,700, wood naphtha £2422, tanning bark £38,032, tanning materials £29,410, turpentine £24,738, turpentine substitutes £0972, timber £742,493, wood manufactures £203,183 and paper £1,286,932. There was no reason why the Dominion should not benefit by providing some of these materials herself. Also about 100,000 telegraph poles were imported every year. A note of warning was being sounded by the experts, and it was feared that the time would soon como when there would he no timber available from outside sources, and New Zealand would have to depend on her own forests. This timber would have to come from the native forests and from the plantation under the charge of the Government.

At the timo the Dominion was first colonised the greatest part of the country was covered by forest. There was an abundance of kauri, rata, kahikatea, and rimu, but a very great percentage of those had been cleared away to enable the land to he used for farming. The work had had to he done, hut at times it had not been done at all scientifically, as some verv expressive lantern slides showed. It was apparent that later there would be a big demand on the native forests. The big trees would have to be taken out carefully, so that the rest of the forests would have a chance to grow. At the present time, when a forest was milled, there was 57.5 wood waste, and of the tree when milled only 30 per cent was realised in rough sawn timber, the remainder being wasted in various ways. Thus, in addition to conserving the forests, there was need of more economical handling of the trees when taken out of tho forest. The supply of timber was being attended to bv the Government, but more would have to he done. Rainfall had a decided hearing on forests, and it was noticeable that when there were strong forests standing to-day, the rainfall was the heaviest for the country. Trees obtained a very small proportion of their nourishment, however, from tho ground, but received much, moro from tho air. Exhibits were shown of faulty dressing of timber, branches being hacked off so that the tree was useless for making timber. It had been found that to obtain good timber tho trees had to he planted close together. A further interesting exhibition was that of a beech block on which in the dis-

tant pnst someone hail out initials. The initials still appeared on the hark, and the initials were found again in the centre of the log. The wood between was the new wood that had grown in the intervening years'.