TECHNICAL FORESTERS.

Shannon News, 30 March 1928, Page 4

TECHNICAL FORESTERS.

FORMATION OF INSTITUTE.

At a meeting held at Rotorua on March 13th, a forward step was taken which will have a far reaching effect on the future of forestry in the Dominion, Present at the meeting were almost all the leading technical forest officers of the Dominion. Mr L. Macintosh Ellis, Director of Forestry, was voted to the chair, and apologies for absence were received from Messrs Owen Jones of N.Z. Perpetual Forests, Ltd., and Messrs Foweraker and Hutchinson of the staff of the Canterbury College School of Forestry. The meeting was the outcome of some eighteen months of careful and deliberate preliminary work on the part of members of the profession, and resulted in. the inauguration of a new body which will be known as the New Zealand Institute of Foresters.

The accepted object and aim of the Institute is 1 ‘ to further the development of technical forestry and the interests of the profession of forestry in the Dominion of New Zealand." Th,e occupation of forestry is one calling for wide scientific and practical knowledge,, in addition to experience, judgment and skill. For therprotection of the public, with, interests amounting at the present time to millions of pounds sterling in State and proprietary forestry in the Dominion, proper qualification is as necessary to the forester as to the civil engineer, the architect, or the surveyor. A carefully drawn up and conservative constitution was adopted. The constitution was eclectic in nature, being based on constitutions of all the existent similar bodies in the Englishspeaking world. The meeting, then resolved'itself into the first annual general meeting of the newly-formed Institute; office-bearers and, members of council were,elected, and a few simple by-laws were adopted. The election of officers and members of Council resulted as follows:—President, Mr L. Macintosh Ellis, B.Sc.F. (Toronto), C.S.F.E., S.A.F., Director of Forestry, Wellington; Vice-president, Professor of Forestry, Auckland University College; secre; ary and treasurer, Mr Frank W. Foster, B.A. (N.Z.) B.Sc. F. (Edin.), Assistant Conservator of Forests, Auckland; members of Council for the Nbrth Island: Mr Arnold Hansson, B.A. (Christiania), M.F. (Yale), Chief Inspector of Forestry, Wellington; Mr Wm. T. Morrison, Conservator of Forests, Rotorua; members of Council for the South sland: Mr A. D. McGavock, Conservator of Forests, Hokitika, and Mr C. M. Smith, M.A. (N.Z.), B.Sc.F. (Edin.), Conservator of Forests, Nelson. 1

To ensure that the governing policy be both continuous and at the same time safeguarded against apathy and stagnation, a somewhat novel article of constitution. provides for biennial election of office-bearers as against annual election of members of Council. ;

» Membership of the Institute will.be, of four grades: honorary, ordinary, associate and student. ■ Admission to all grades will be elective, and only ordinary members will have voting powers in this or in any other activity of the Society. Honorary members will never exceed twenty in number, and not more than four will be elected in one year. Ordinary members must be qualified for election by both technical training and by a period of active practical work, or for a very limited time in special cases, by a long and successful period of practical work only. Associate membership will demand the same qualifications but with a somewhat shorter practical experience, and after the first six months, will be a necessary prior qualification for admission to ordinary membership. Presentation of a professional thesis will be required for transference from the grade of associate 1 to that of ordinary member. It follows from this careful selection of members that the present Institute is small in members and will be likely to remain comparatively small for some years. Present members stand to derive but little personal benefit from their efforts, but the whole organisation builds, as all forestry must build, for posterity. It is hoped that one of the Institute’s chief activities will be the publication of an annual volume of papers of a technical nature. tUiis should .serve future foresters as aa invaluable authentic record of conditions which, by then, will have passed completely aivay .and must in many cases.provide the key to future problems ;at present unpredictable. Every" present day forester engaged in the administration of an- exploitable forest or in the utilisation of a previously used soil, knows well and' to his cost the delay, the endless speculation on the history of the present condition of affairs —be it the history of the timber rights, of the useless weed association, or of the soil conditions. '

Candidates for membership in the Institute must be proposed by an ordinary member and seconded by another ordinary member. Charter members comprise, in addition to those already mentioned, the following:—Mr E. Phillips Turner (Secretary of Forestry, Wellington), Miss Mary Sutherland, B.ScF., (Forest Service, Botorua), Messrs B. B. Steele B.Sc. (Department of Agriculture, Tasmania, recently of the N.Z. Forest Service), Mr 11. A. Goudie (Administrator N.Z, Bedwoods, Limited, Botorua), and Messrs B. D. Campbell, S.A.C. Darby, D. MacPherson and W. G. Morrison (Conservators of Forests at Auckland, Invercargill, Palmerston North, and Christchurch respectively).