WHERE TALL TIMBER GROWS

Hokitika Guardian, 5 December 1930, Page 3

WHERE TALL TIMBER GROWS

(By J.C. in Auckland “Star”.)

“There is enough native timber clown there on the West Coast to last the whole of New Zealand for the next hundred years”. This is the considered opinion of a veteran North Island timber miller who called in for a yarn the other day on his return from an expedition down through the Westland country. He had prospected the timber areas for a hundred miles or so south of Hokitika, and he was greatly impressed not only with the extent of the big timber, but with the capacity of the milled areas of forest lor natural regeneration. “Some -il the tallest trees I have even seen in the bush in a lifetime of work are in those West Coast forests. The climate is particularly favourable to timber growth, and if you leave a worked-out forest alone it will- regenerate itself so long as you fence it to keep stock out.” Perhaps it was the knowledge of these facts that influenced the decision of the Government, on the advice of the State Forest Service, to establish the Nntional School of Forestry, in Canterbury, within easy reach of the principal uture source of indigenous timber supply Only those who have travelled the West Coast can realise the rapidity and luxuriance of growth of the hush all along that moist and comparatively warm littoral. T have ridden for a week through an almost continuous belt of forest from north of Okarito away down to the Haast Pass, and the timber there, it struck me at the time, would he our greatest reserve of the future. But access is the difficulty on that harbourless coast. South of Hoki- * i

tika for more than two hundred miles there is only one place at which timber could be shipped, and that port, Okarito lagoon, is an unreliable oar entrance, sometimes closed, and om.y. workable by shallow-draught vessels.. It can, however, be improved,, and probably will be. used when the large aieas of kahikatea pine, now very ‘ scarce m the North Island, are opened up for milling. My bushman-and-miller friend is a strong advocate of a vigorous native ,orest regeneratioiFand cultivation policy on the part of the State and the private owners of forests. ‘‘No. timber’ he declares, ‘‘is' superior to our New Zealand woods.” He is of opinion after half a century of practical experience, that New Zealand juust pay more attention to its splendid trees and less to imported varieties of timber. “In my belief,” he said, “the Forest Department is making a great mistake in giving ”o much attention to American and other exotic timbers and so little to the indigenous trees, including the kauri.” It was not a mere matter of the next few years, but a national duty for the future, to cultivate the,forest and assure a perpetual supply. Pinus insignia, pinus radiata. and most other introduced trees were very inferior stuff alongside the native timbers. It was, of course, very necessary to grow them for various requirements and they were of value because they grew quickly and grew anywhere. But for house building and for furniture what could exceed in value the indigenous woods? The large importations of Oregon pine and other North American timbers 1 are naturally a source of much vexation to my caller,, and to others in his, calling. “In Lyttelton the other day,” he said. “I saw a big steamer in from America not only with full holds but with a huge deckload—all Oregon pine. .And here we have our own bush mills closing down and hundreds of. good skilled men out of work or forced into occupations for which they are not suited nearly SO well as for the work of the bush. Of course,” ho acknowledged, “this Oregon pine has its advantages from the point o'' view of the builder. It is well, seasoned by the time it gets here, it can be cut in longer lengths than’ our own timbers, and it can he sold cheaper because of the intensively organised condition of the timber business in America. Canada has brought the art of cheap milling and marketing of timber to a fine art; it is on such a ln’g scale.” The question in seasoning, by the way, is a crucial consideration in marketing timber. T mentioned the timber miller’s statement of the position to an architect of large experience. He pointed out. for one thing, how New Zealand timber nut into a certain large structural work had warped because i 1 had not been given time to season properly. He considered that it ‘was. tlm miller’s own fault: they, should have gone in for the kiln-drying system.

All these points call for consideratiobv State and private enterprise alih' and by all "bo would litre to see tb native forests preserved and worked aa perpetual source of supply side hRide with useful pvoties. and to see r< (rrept, industry which has for a centnr--been bound un wi tb N“w Zealand’s li f given assurance of a permanent and prosperous place in its economy.