FOREST POLICY

Hokitika Guardian, 22 October 1929, Page 2

FOREST POLICY

MINISTER DISCUSSES ROYALTIES. GOOD LABOUR CONDITIONS. . W ELLINGTON, October 18. ' A ; -number:of interested,.;afforestation questions ; were ,jaised jdui’ing the cushion , of/.the ’State ;Forest-.Service estimates,; a/id .were dealt. with ;by. the Eton W. B. Taverner, Commissioner of State Forests, in his reply, r ', ': V .‘As for the war on deer, the Minister assured members that-it ..was a. very difficult operation. The animals, .were too discriminating to take poison, and when they were hunted, they, retreated, only to come back .when,-,,conditions were safer. In view, of the plan to take on, a large number of men, .for tree, planting he had instructed two competent officers, two months ago to visit all the planting camps, in the Dominion to report' op conditions and any remedial, measures they could suggest. The result had been .that all the camps were in line in regal’d to good sanitation. They were i properly provided with incinerators and baths with a hdt. water; supply, The' setting .aside of land for /afforestatiop -was done, in a -systematic manner, and no land suitable for ■ pastoral or. i agricultural production was being-used, areas foi 1 afforestation purposes being subject to the' approval of the Department .of Agriculture. Areas which, had been reserved as provisional State forests had been released for agricultural purposes as a result of these investigations. TIMBER ROYALTY POLICY.

,As for timber royalties the Minister pointed .out that the State was not the cSontrolling factor. In 1926, out of 353 million broad feet of timber produced, the .State Forest Department was only interested in seventy-nine millions. The average production from State.forests during the last four years had. been eighteen per cent, of the total, so that the department did not by any means control the timber royalties position. The South Island was enjoying cheaper timber than the North, for the average royalty in the South was 15 9d. per 100 broad feet, compared with 20s Bd. The department, he concluded, was extremely anxious to see the, timber industry again on a prosperous basis, and it was not desirous, of keeping royalties up to a point which would press heavily on those in the trade.