FOREST WASTE.
SIR RIDER HAGGARD ON NEW ZEALAND. "IT MAKES THE HEART BLEED." At the Authors' Club, of all places, there was a most interesting discuuion on the value of afforestation. Sir Rider Haggard was there and also Sir William Sblicta, Professor of Forestry at Oxford University. The chairman (Mr D. ifl. Hutchins) who opened the discussion, said that, speaking purely as a forester there was no doubt of the immense importance to forestry in the present attitude of the Government. This attitude would find its echo in every corner of the British Empire, where there were forests, and it would afford encouragement and help to those who for a generation had been fighting for a sound forest policy in the colonies. We were spending £30,000,000 a year on foreign timber and paper pulp which could be produced at home if only a fraction of the waste lands were planted. How had it come about that during the last forty years, while our neighbours —Germany, France. Belgijm, and the United Stateß of America—had all pushed ahead with their State forestry, we had rather gone back? The answer was the absence in this country of any popular sentiment in favour of State forests. Sir W. Schlich deprecated the suggestion of the Commission on Coast Erosion and Forestry, which proposed the afforestation of some 2,000,000 acres now under cultivation, and thereby practically paralysed their proposal of afforestation Borne additional 7.000,000 acres now not used for agriculture, inasmuch as one acre of cultivation required at least as mu:h l»bour as five to ten acres of forest. It had been estimated that the existing 3,000,000 acres of wood lands in this country produced about 3,000,000 tonß of timber, a liberal allowance and on an average 10,000,000 tons was imported. Of that quantity only 2,500,000 tons came from British colonies, and 7,500,000 tons from forigen countries. Some £20,000,000 to £30,000,000 was paid for that timber, delivered at English ports. "Guided by my long experience," added Sir William, "1 have come to the conclusion that land which is worth less than 10s an acre a year can, under proper mangement, be made to yield 3 per cent, on the invested capital, allowing compound interest all round, under climate like that possessed by these islandß. Of course, 3 per cent, interest at the present boom of industrial and commercial activity will by many people be looked at with contempt. But there are ups and downs in this direction, and the time may not be very far off when a certain income of 3 per cent, may once more be looked upon as highly desir able. Woods, once brought under systematic management, and treated accordingly, to correct sylvicultural principles, give a steady income year after year, and proprietors can at night put their heads on their pillows without the uncertainty of the ups and down in the city." Sir Rider Haggard said he had seen things in Australasia calculated to make the heart of any forester bleed. He might take the instance of the kauri pine in New Zealand, which, perhaps, was the most marvellous tree in the world. It had been calculated that some of these trees had attained the age of 6000 years. He could only say as to that, that he saw one which had been felled, and he tried to D count the rings in it, and when he got to 2000 he gave it up. This tree had the habit of shedding its bark each year, which formed a mound around the base, and in the case of one giant tree, four of the party, standing on the mound, tried to span it at a height of 12ft from the base, and there remained 12ft or 14ft unspanned, so he calculated the circumference at that height to be not IeBS than 40ft. Thousands of years it has stood there, but it and its fellowß were all condemned to the axe within the next few months. These trees were being destroyed, sometime on the plea that they should be turned into money, or that the ground should be üßed for settlers, or that fire might get to them. The same thing was going on everwyhere. "In Australia and New Zealand 1 looked on these ghastly stumps wherever my eye fell. Much of the land must be cleared for settlements. But I have seen places, especially in New Zealand, where no settle ment can ever come —clefts in the precipitous cliffs—and still there the timber is being burned, destroyed, wasted. The same thing iB happening in England. The woods we have, if they have not been scientifically foatered, are very beautiful, poducing the oak, which has been of such service to our country in the paßt, and is in a Bense still our glory."—(Cheers).
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King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 635, 17 January 1914, Page 2
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799FOREST WASTE. King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 635, 17 January 1914, Page 2
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