STATE FORESTRY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 357, 19 October 1932, Page 6

STATE FORESTRY

ECONOMIC CUTS SU GGESTION S OF UNWXSE PRUNERS SEVERELY CRITICISED. SUBJECT NOT UNDERSTOOD. ' The reference to the State forestry operations in the National Expenditure Commission report have induced Dr. jcL. E. Annett, a highly quaiified agricultural scientist, to show that th Commissioners have dealt with a subject of which they have an imperfect understanding. The report states, with implied disapproval, that the tree-planting programme of 300,000 acres by 1935 has heen accelerated and exceeded by eompleting an aggregate of 347,000 acres at the end of the financial year 19311932, and that the goal so reached is years ahead of its time. In spite of this opinion and their expressed fear that when the plantations reach maturity the supplies of softwoods may exceed the demand, the. Commissioners advise that a further area of 123,000 acres should be planted between 1932 and 1935. If the planting of this -excess area is advised mainly for the purpose of relieving unemployment, it would certainly have been far wiser had the Commissioners advised the thinning of the plantations already established. This thinnjffg is overdue, and was in 1928 reported by the Empire forestry delegates as then heing matter requiring urgent attention. Not Consistent. Now, with respect to the area already planted being in advance and in excess of the programme, I would like to stress the fact that this circumstance has resulted from the most laudable desire of governments to relieve most serious unemployment by employing men in planting trees during the winter months when, of course, unemployment is most severely felt. By establishing forests on non-agrieul-tural lands, governments have spent money on an undertaking which will be of great and certain benefit to the country, whereas the money spent on many other State undertakings will have doubtful, if any, future national benefit. If the Commissioners thought that an excess of timber might be produced, why did they not advocate the stopping of any further ylant'ng by the 'State ? t&L&i . Lack of Study. In stating that the timber frorn these softwood forests may be in excess of the demand, it is evident the Commissioners have not studied the authorities — European and Ameriean — on the subject of ihe world's softwood timber supplies. . Again, in talking of the problematical date of maturity of the forest plantations the Commissioners show that they have not understood or thoroughly investigated their subject. In New Zealand there are alrmdy mature plantations — that is, plantations in which the trees have reached a profitable milling size — of pinus radiata (insignis pine), Douglass fir, Corsican pine, and western yellow pine. Unwise Economy. The Commissioners recommend the closing of the Auckland, Wellington, Nelson and Invercargill regional forest offices, retaining only the head offioe at Wellington and the regional offices at Rotorua, Christchurch and Hokitika. In doing this they appear to have overloolced or disregarded the "facts that the regional offices at Auckland, Palmerston North, Nelson and Invercargill have huge areas of indigenous forests or large exotic plantations to administer and manage in accordance writh sound silvicultural practice. S, ^ r SfeSteS! Blind and Thoughtless. I assume that the Commissioners ara not blind and thoughtless enough to propose that the staffs of these offices should be dismissed and their work and responsibilities distributed among the Rotorua, Wellington, Christchurch and Hokitika staffs; for these latter staffs already have onerous burdens to carry. For instance, the Rotorua eonservator and his proportionately small staff already have the very big area of 200,000 acres of exotic plantations to manage, as well as about sv--." acres of indlgenous forests. The Commissioners are undoubtedly able business men, but they seem to have assumed that forestry consists only of planting trees, waiting till they reach milling size, and then cutting them down. It is, however, far more than this, for if the plantations