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Hokitika Guardian, 27 March 1925, Page 2

Part of the mission south of the Hon Minister of Marine was to take note of harbor possibilities at Okarito. There is a great forest wealth in that neighbourhood, and it can bo used to advantage, only by maritime export. But the trade for that must lie overseas, for the mills in touch with the railway lines to-day*, arc more than ample to supply the needs of Now Zealand in regard to timber supplies. Railway communication south from ~oss niust be long delayed under the present policy affecting timber, and the alternative will be, if the land is to be settled so that homes may lie made for the increasing population the Country is hungry for, that the forest must be felled, and the giant trees of the south sent up in smoke as were the bush lands of the North Island when the settler went on his land. That is not a pleasing prospect, but we predict so far as South Avestland is concerned that as the country is settled, more timber will go up in smoke, and its value lest to the country. than the saving to the country believed to be operating under tbc restriction of export.

It is obvious New Zealand cannot continue to cbnsume the timber here within several generations. There is thus the fact that the country is suffering a great trade loss through not using the commodity economically now, and the country is paying dearly and quite unnecessarily for a most expensive State Forest service which seems to exist mainly* with the object of retarding the industry, and if the forestry policy is so excellent a thing, why be perturbed about the time when the unborn millions arrive. Should not the forestry* policy of to-day* have created by them—the dim and distant future— a wealth of forest growth that- would rival nature’s prodigal gifts which we may reap now. If the country* is to get any sort of a return from the very costly forest policy it is putting-up with, there should be ample timber in the years to come. Butwe warn posterity (if that be possible) that if in tbc days to come they have to use timber at all, it will be a most expensive material indeed, if they have to pay for it what it is costing the country now to grow. It will be worth its weight in gold—so costly will it have Iveen to produce.

Wf. feel quite sure Government. Barliament, nor the people generally realise where the forestry policy of today is carrying the Dominion. For the present we believe it is high time the people set about endeavouring to reclaim their rights. The restrictive policy of the government regarding the timber trade is the mast important matter facing the people. Me have seen how the Government, to help prop up the Forest Service, collared the timber royalties from the local bodies. The local birth-right was taken away in the of war’s

alarms by an act which was designed to regulate war measures. It was a very deliberate steal, and the government has got away with it. There is now the promise of “fifths,” something to salve the conscience, but the robbery deliberate was there. Then a Minister of the Crown came here, ostensibly to give no quarter to the sawmillers. Their very legal rights were threatened by confiscatory legislation. The. whole line of policy by the Government in regard to the timber trade lias been to penalise Westland, and it is high time indeed the people began to assert themselves by a wellorganised protest to proclaim the true position to the country and seek for some measure of redress for the penalty imposed.