DOMINION FORESTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 February 1927, Page 4

DOMINION FORESTS.

MENACED RY IMPORTED INSECTS WELLINGTON. Fell. 1. Rigid inspection of imported limber for borer pests, or regulations insisting that all timber imported shall he treated to destroy any living grubs or. more important, the insect eggs before shipments are demanded of the Government, bv the Dominion Sawmillers’ Federal ion. In ail official statement the Federlit ion says: “When it became known that the live stock of ceriiiin countries was infected with foot and mouth disease the Government rightly took Die most rigid precautions to prohibit the importation of any rirticle that might possibly carry this dreaded infection, hilt is not the life and being of our forests and plantations ultimately more important than even the protection of the Dominion’s live stock? The latter is to a h’rge extent dependent on the former, for if our mountain and upland forests that promote and regulate .stream flow were to he destroyed, where would he the live stock to protect from introduced diseases? Ever so serious as is this forest insect post menace, however, the Government appears to tlike no account of it nor to institute the slightest precautions against the introduction of the numerous species that might, find our hush and plantations a. fertile breeding ground and by an epidemic visitation lay wj’.ste tract after tract of the Dominion’s protective and climatic forests, forests that might verily he styled the vital heart of the country.

“From time to time there have been sent, to us small samples and specimens of' imnorted timber which have been literally riddled by various borers in (heir country of origin. Afore rorticulnrlv is this so in respect to cedar and hemlock, but so far a casual examination of them has not disclosed actual live specimens of any of the Various insects causing the borings, though the presence of beetle eggs would he almost impossible to defect, from both Auckland and Dunedin, hqewovcr, wo have had news of carpenters disclosing live grubs in their handling and cutting up of these imported timbers, bub in each case, through lack of realisation of tlio importance of the discovery, these specimens were not retained. Also we have ample evidence that numerous boring grubs ( which were in the tree when cut) vill retain life in certain timber long alter it lias been cut. mid even put through the planer. . . t4 ()t* specimens of borings in imported timbers so far examined, it has not been possible to definitely identify the particular species of insects that were their cause, but in several specimens if, is much more than probable that the insect guilty wins the devastating beetle which attacks the living tree and sweeps through tracts of forest on the Pacific coast in the season in the epidemic form. Once this dreaded insect were acclimatised in New Zealand. no power on earth could conti ol its lMvagos. “Or insect species associated one way or another with economic activity in New Zealand 71 per cent .are from other countries, and have been introduced through timber, poles and packing cases. It is high time, therefore, thlnt serious attention should be directed to this subject by the Government, and that wholesale and unrestricted importations of uninspected timbers should ho subjected to some examination or the imposition of some form of warranty that they are not infected by the many forms of insect pest that cause such havoc in the forests of other countries.”

K H