THE FORESTRY YEAR

Hokitika Guardian, 11 August 1926, Page 4

THE FORESTRY YEAR

RECORD FOR EMPIRE. Tlio year 1925-20 established a record in afforestation in New Zealand, according to facts set out in the annual report of the State Forest Service, presented to Parliament last week. “Real headway was made during the year.” states the director, Mr -Macintosh Ellis, “ and the service can record another peak year in achievement and operation. The programme of action for the period 1925-35 as submitted in the last annual report met with a splendid reception and was in principle approved. Among other objectives, it advised the formation of a jjrovineially distributed state forest plantation estate of 300.000 acres, s.nd according to plan under this programme 15,964 acres were formed in the Auckland, Canterbury. Otago and Wi si land provinces, being more by 184-. acres than that of the previous year. The total State plantation in acreage now stands at 76.953 acres. The plan of allocating to each province its appropriate acreage of State timber farms was in part carried out bv establishing a new planting t. litre in the city of Auckland ; the •icq:il.:ition of 55.01.2 acres in the Ivainga -on district, end S6OO acres in the I'aTmoral district of the Canterbury, province. while acquisition negotiations were begun with regard to planting centres in • the 'Wellington, Marlborough Sounds, Nelson, and Southland regions.

PROBLEMS OF COST. “ Marching with these activities has been the adoption of n cheaper and more efficient technique of tree production and plantation formation. The service has concerned itself during the past few years with the solving of afforestation cost problems, and it is submitted, not unsuccessfully. The straight line methods, now generally adopted throughout the service lake fall advantage of the use of mechanical power and machinery in nursery and plantation, wide planting ospacemcnt and direct seeding. Five acres can now he formed where one acre was planted in the year 1920. This new standard technique now in general use hv tree-planting companies and others will he applied in the formation of 60,000 acres of plantation, 1 State and private,’ during the current season, and its use enables the production of tree stocks and creation of plantations on a cost basis as low as that of any overseas service or another agency in any part of the Empire.”-

The cost of establishing one acre of State forest plantations has fallen from a little under C 9 in 1921, to

slightly over £2 in 10215. and in the same period the area planted annually has risen from. 1381' acres to 15,904 acres.

Regarding local government activities. the report states that 29 bodies in the North Island have established plantations ranging from two and a half to 030 acres. In the South Island nineteen authorities planted 1221 acres in the course of the year. Dunedin City Council 450 acres. Selwyn Plantation Board 308 acres, Christchurch City Council 150 acres, Ashburton County Council 118 acres. An area of 721 acres of Crown Land was vested in the Whakatane County Conned for tree-planting purposes. EMPIRE RECORD. The grand total of planting for the year was 33,888 acres, made up as under: State 55,904, farmers 2800, tree-planting companies and syndicates 14.847, other companies 277. This is regarded as a record for the Empire. The plantings for the current year will much exceed this figure. The State forest area was increased by 08,100 acres net, making a total of 7.553,690 acres or 11.4 per cent of the area of the Dominion. Losses by fire in the. State forests amounted to only £B7, hut other plantations suffered the loss of 1010 acres of naturalised trees, principally through inadequate supervision and indifferent protection.