NATIVE TIMBERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22987, 16 September 1936, Page 4

NATIVE TIMBERS

DWINDLING RESOURCES

DANGER POINT APPROACHING PROHIBITION OF EXPORT SUGGESTED Strong support for the suggestion that the export of native timbers from New Zealand should be prohibited was contained in a letter from the Dunedin Builders' Association, which was received at the meeting of the council of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce last night. The proposal had originally been made by the Hawke's Bay A. and P. Society, and the chamber had sought the views of builders in Dunedin. "In New Zealand," the letter stated, "we have no regeneration of native softwoods on milled areas. All the timber that is logged is a direct cut into our future timber supplies, and the figures given in the Year Book for 1936 indicate that our forests have already diminished during the period 1847-1932 from 27,600,000 acres to 12,600,000 acres—a loss of nearly 55 per cent, in 85 years. The output of timber is steadily increasing. The easiestmilled timbers and the best stands have been exhausted, and costs have risen enormously." The letter went on to quote the following extract from the annual report for 1926 of the State Forest Service:—" The period 1965-70 will see the end of our original softwood resources, and from that time onwards New Zealand must look primarily to her man-made forests for wood supplies, but in the meantime we must husband, conserve and use our remaining forest wealth with the greatest care, for we waste every year, iri the production of 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 cubic feet of sawn timber, five to six times as much." Plantations woods cculd not fill the place held by native timbers, the letter added, and Pinus insignis was in the main suitable only for rough constructional work. The amount of Pinus insignis produced in 1934 was but 3.68 per cent, of the timber cut, and increasing supplies were not yet available. Deducting exotic plantation timber from the total cut, there remained a gap of approximately 176,160,000 board feet still to be bridged, and New Zealand could export approximately 34,000,000 board feet of select quality. , "The end of the native timber resources in this once heavily forested country is in sight," the letter went on, ''and exportation is hastening that end. In Australia white pine has a premier position as a non-tainting soft wood for the packing of butter, cheese, and other foodstuffs, and rimu is in demand for joinery purposes. Exports from New Zealand, principally to- Australia, for the year ended March 31, 1934, were: Rimu. 7,150,514 board feet; white pine, 22,784,987 board feet. The export of white pine was more than 46 per cent, of the total amount produced in the Dominion. The material exported is of selected quality. The visible supply is, in proportion to the yearly cut, dangerously small, and it is essential to the well-being of our industries that export should cease and that wastage of all kinds should be eliminated as far as is possible."

After the letter had been read, a member asked whether white pine was used for any purpose other than the making of butter and cheese boxes.

Mr W. H. Naylor replied that white pine was extensively used for "boxing" in the construction of concrete buildings. Mr H. L. Longbottom remarked that it was reasonable to expect that the Forestry Department and the Department of Industries and Commerce should be able to look after the position. Mr Naylor added that experts stated" that every country should have 25 per cent, of its area in forests. He understood that in New Zealand the figure was only 12 per cent.

Mr M. Stewart: Would pinus insignis not be as suitable for boxing as white pine? Mr Naylor: It is, but we haven't much of it. Mr Stewart said he understood that if some of the timbei on the West Coast was not exported direct to Australia it could not be sold, as the cost of sending it to other parts of New Zealand was too high. In the north it was possible to bring some timbers from Canada and the United States more cheaply than from the West Coast. The chairman stated that the Hawke's Bay A. and P. Society had been asked for further particulars, and, on his suggestion, the discussion was postponed until the next meeting.