NATIVE TIMBER

Hokitika Guardian, 29 January 1931, Page 7

NATIVE TIMBER

SUPPLY FOR FUTURE. COMMERCIAL PROSPECTS OF REGENERATION. CHRIST CHURCH , January 26. V» Jme nut deprecating me policy "Tiic.li Aen' Zealand has adopted oi plaining large areas in exotic trees, -'L' A. E. Hutchinson, lecturer m i oi'rst Utilisation at Canterbury Col-1-ge, holds that more attention should oe given to the regeneration of our native lorcsls. He believes that : u tare! ul attention to the young native limber stands on areas which have been lies the hope for regenerating our native forests. Speaking to a reporter he pointed out that State and private funds were being invested in exotic plantations in New Zealand at the rate of £500,000 a. year, the area of such plantations being added to by 100,000 acres annually. Titus the question arose as to whether our forestry policy was such as to secure the greatest return from the lowest expenditure. In our native forests three essential elements —land, growing stock and mature tim her—were all present. The forest w-n complete; it would yield its crop today, and, provided adequate reproduction were established, it could continue producing indefinitely.

"EGGS IX ONE BASKET.” The only outlay entailed was in establishing that reproduction and most countries had found the outlav a profitable one. Of all countries having extensive natural forests New Zealand was the only one putting a 1! its eggs in the ’basket of artificial planting. The responsibility for per palliating the native forests lay with the people as a whole, since this hush was almost ail State-owned. Although in 192!) the Dominion controlled million acres of native forests an I 250,000 acres of plantations, it spoil' £250.000 on its plantations and only £OO,OOO on the management and de vt lopnionl of its native forests.

REG ITERATION POSSIBLE. The work of discovering how best native trees can be regenerated is being carried out at present on the rest arch station near Rinui, on the West Coast, by the stall' of the School ot Forestry. Air Hutchinson lias just returned from there. Research, he sa\s } has already proved that, over most 1 arts in Westland at any rate, regeneration of the forest is possible. HUherb; many of the areas milled have also been burned, so. that all the young growth wliicli the millers have left behind has been destroyed. It is b.v the conservation of this that Mr Hutchinson hopes to have within a reasonable period, n new forest of coin mercial value growing on the ground from which the mature trees were milled.

SIGNIFICANT EXAMPLE. From actual measurement it lias been found that the native sapling left on these areas are growing well, f*iniii trees have increased in height timing this year from six inches to one foot six inches, while white pine has made anything up to two feet Further, on one stand 18,000 to 26,00') cubic feet of timber per acre had be°u taken, 60 per cent, of the area having Teen cut out. The remainder was covered by pockets of young trees, which investigation had shown to he growing at the rate of 1000 superficial leet per acre per year. Obviouslv, by protecting such an area from fire and other destruction, another native forest commercially profitable, was going to grow up within a generation. This protection could he given cheaply, said Mr Hutchinson, so was not this the logical means of conserving <vr native timber supply, at any rate lor the next iiftv rears?

Mr Jlutchins-on detailed elaborate experiments designed to discover the rale of growth of rimu. The three hundred trees in the sample plots wcv first measured in 1928 and measurements are being made each year til 1 1933. when data for a table to show the average rate of growth of stands of this kind of timber will be available. This is expected to furnish valuable information about the prospects for the regeneration of our rinnt frrests.