STATE FORESTRY

Hokitika Guardian, 11 September 1930, Page 8

STATE FORESTRY

LARGE PLANTATION AREAS. LEADING STATE IN EMPIRE. DOMINION’S RECORD. With ft new area °I 56,630 acres, including 30 acres of direct donnafcion, planted in trees last year bj the State Forest Service, New Zealand now has ft total plantation establishment of 253,603. acres. This, as far as afforestation is concerned, makes the Dominion the leading State in' the Empire. In pointing this out in his annual report to Parliament the Director of Forestry, Mi E. Phillips Turner, explained that the programme mapped out for 1931 planting involved the afforestation of approximately 54,600 acres. Reviewing the major operations o, the service during the past year the Director stated that an outstanding achievement for the year was the thinning, partially thinning,, anil of the majority of the olderage classes in the State plantations That this silvicultural treatment wa? overdue had long been recognised, and although experimental thinning of fcample plots had been undertaken from time to time, it had not been possible to operate on an organisei scheme of any magnitude. The opportunity came, however, when thi service was called on to assist in providing work for the unemployed, and from October, 1929’ till March of the present year gangs were employed on thinning, partially thinning and cleaning in Rotorua, Canterbury am Otago-Southland regions. About 2001 acres in a, portion of, Conical Hills Plantation (Otago) still remained tc be dealt with, but the work already accompiisbed must have an important effect iby improving the health of the trees, lessening the fire risk, and where thinning was done, by increasing the productive, volume of the ultimate timber crop.

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF. At the peak period 1820 hands wen engaged on, forestry work, and when it was remembered that many of those were city dwellers unaccustomed to the rigours of country life and to camp conditions during a wet season it. was pleasing to- record that the results from a forestry viewpoint were comparatively satisfactory. T;hi establishment Hf a silvicultural research station in Waipoua State Forest—the last of those large magnificent kauri forests of the north—wa< authorised, during the year, and the necessary preparations were in hand at the time of writing to enable operations to be commenced there without delay. Although definite result? could not be obtained for some time it was confidently expected that when the five-year experiments and investigationjs had been completed, the service would have secured data which would solve the many problems regarding the rate of growth, regeneration, hafljits, etc., of New Zealand ffinest timber tree.

“The year’s sales of in&igenous timber,’’ the Director continues, “show an increase over the figures for the previous year, .and appear to indicate generally that the sawroilling industry is gradually emerging from the period of depression through which it has been passing for some years and is becoming gradually more stabilised. Timber testing has been continued and the comparative anc actual strengths, etc,, of seven indigenous timbers and four imported ones were investigated.. Various industrial studies (air seasoning and kiln drying, testing suitable timbers for fruit and butter boxes, testing ol insignis pine for ibi'idge-stringers. testing creosoted rimu poles for telegraph and power lines, investigating insjgnis pine, kauri, etc., for supplies of turpentine, oils, etc., to name but a few), together with an extensive economic pulp-wood survey to ascertain the commercial possibilities o! establishing' the industry in the Dominion have also been undertaken.’ EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. The report stated that the expori trade in timber .for the year endec December 31, 1929, was higher than for the two previous years of 192 F and 1927, the respective figures being 1154,000 ft b.m., valued at £439,950’ 35.209,000 ft b.m., valued at' £377. 480- and 37,191,000 ft b.m., valued at £425,939. The average f.o.b, value also showed a considerable increase on the 1928 figure, although still a little lower than the 1927 value, the respective figures being 22s 6d, 21s 7d, and 23s per 100 ft b.m, Australia continued to absorb practically the whole of our timber exports, bijt inquiries .from the United Kingdom continued to increase, and the Government, in co-qperation with various national and regional sawmilling organisations, was increasing its tradeextension activities in Europe to promote the wider- utilisation of sucli hardwoods as silver beech and tawa, of which New Zealand possesses a surplus. During the past year the Australian timber tariff was revised in favour of New Zealand woods an increased tariff l>eing placed on Scandinavian and American timbers. Ultimately that should result in an increase export of all species, but it was possible that no marked improvement would take place until the Oommonwalth had recovered from its trftde depression,

Practically the whole, of the exports were rough-sawn material, dressed ilinep comprising only 5.8 per :ent of the total exports. As in previous years white pine comprised the bulk of the export trade, representing in quantity 78 per cent of, the total limber.; exports, "as compared with mVv 72’ per cent during the year ended December 31, 1928. The import trade for tlie year ended December 31.‘ 1929. reached a total of almost 63,000,000 ft m.m., which represented an increase of about ?,500.000ft b.m! f 'over the 60,500,0001 1 l>.m. importation for the year ended December 31, 1929, although still considerably 'below the peak importation of 52,000,000 ft b.m.- during the year ended December 31, 1925. Primarily. the import trade in timber differs from the export trade in the large proportion of hardwoods which it included. XppWximatel'y 40 jper cent of. the total imports were of hardwoods