The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1920. TREELESS NEW ZEALAND.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3455, 8 April 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1920. TREELESS NEW ZEALAND.

With which is incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.” ~

The number of men employed on the purely pastoral sheep runs of New Zealand averages one to every thirty thousand and three acres (i) of land. One man works, or leaves unworked, thirty thousand acres of this country ’s occupied pastoral land. Surely there ‘is’ someimistake in the figures given, either in the numberof men, or in the I number of acres, because there would be very little work indeed in this ' Dominion _for shepherds, or prodigies, D that were capable of effectuallyboundary riding thirty thousand acres [ pcr_ man.‘__ Nothing surpzic-es {people ‘ nowadays," astonishinents crowd _in so fast that they have become commonplace, and the super and subordinate in nature has ceased to attract com‘mon attention. The mind of man in ithese extre.ol'dinary times quails at nothing, and most. people would be ‘just as ready to believe Sir David Hutchins‘ if he "had reported to the Government that only one man was employed, averagely, on three hundred thousand acres of land. The fact is there seems to be a more than averagely earnest, desire in New Zealand to prove the truth of the outrageous postulate, “All men are liars.” Last week there wasnvidespread ‘hope raised by the Prime .\linister’s statement that there would be ample supplies of wheat to ensure plentitude in the Staff of Life during the current season; that there would be no shortage of breaa no matter what surprise the price of it might furnish. Then somei body called Lambert, who is described [as an expert in wheat-growing and flour—milling, stated through city newspapers that. he had made an exhaustive investigation of the wheat and flour supply, and he saw no loophole from -a. state of semi-starvation, increasingly soaring prices, rotten wheat being ground for human consumption ’that no lluiuane—minded and rosp.:-c?-l able egg-farmer would insult his poul*,try with. There "rippoars to be li.t.tlo ' question about all men being liars, the ; task is now to sort out the most outgrageous from ~':he common every-day ikind. Ordinary decent people simply i do not l{YlOW' who, and what, to believe, what to read, what to listen to. During the last few days, in addition to the story about one man to thirty thousand acres of sheep farni. an unnamed member of the Samoan picnic party has publicly stated that there are uilpl'eced'"ented hoards of sugar in the islands belonging to and accumulated by the New Zealand Sugar Rofining Company. That statemont is apparently true, as 'Sir James Allen, leader of the picnic party, has not hastened to deny it; but why is the Sugar Refining Company building up those unpreccldentedly huge accumulations while they could turn every ounce of it into cash in New Zealand‘? On the other hand‘, the Sugar Company is assuming the pussy-foot attitude, and doesn’t admit the great sugar stores on the islands, evidently they have no desire to cash their sugar on this side of next June. This is the honourable trading that has become the mode during the last few years. There is also a, conflict of ‘statements about thei coal shortage; the common story is] that there is ample coal for all house! hold purposes; it is not -a case of coal shortage, but a shortage of trucks for transporting the coal to where housewives urgently need it. Britons area long-suffering people, patient, and slow tofan;:m*. but they, in New Zealand. hm-‘.e no doubts, and are not deceived about the mnlignity of the organised

gangs that are exploiting them at eve.r_v turn. {Sllgar is about :he only article of daily use that has not increased in price by about one hundred per cent. But to come back to the Stafement about one mar. to every tliirtjfthousand acres of -sheep farm, credited to Sir David Huichjns, in his report to the New Zealand Government. We think the pi'intel' has erred by putting an additional numeral or cipher. It inatters little, however, for even one man’ to three thousand acreswould eous‘titute extreme co=nd;cmn;a,tion of this oountry’s land settlement policy. It would disclose that Government has all along failed to understand the duties for which govern.ments are elected. It sounds monstrous, past belief, and understanding, that a. policy should be persisted in which gathers people into admittedly over-crowded cities_, in unhealthy sugroundings and conditions, to live upon the earnings of men, each of whom have thirty thousand acres of sheeprun to roam _o\-‘er. Sir David Hutchins is an export in forestry, and he tells the Government that it would be incalculably more profitable to use those sheep runs for growing kauri trees instead of one man and a few sheep. He ‘informs the Government that if kauri ;trees are planted on the land one man to every seventy—five acres would be given profitable employment—~four hundred men on thirty thousand acres in place of one. If Sir David HutchLins knows his business he should succeed in sheeting home to Govefignment ,and people a bewildering act of folly; but the people have become so accustomed to being bamboozled with deliberate untruth. that not -one per thousand will listen to statements Pforeboding anything but ill. There:fore it is probable Sir David Hutchins’ knowledge and works will bc.disregarded, people have become indifferent, and nothing but earthquake will lconvinee the Government that it is not infallible. Sir David Hutchins has shown the Government how ta make four hundred men live and grow in‘ the country where one was wont. VVhat a cllanc'e‘Sir David has given for a government to become rea.l benefactors to -their country and its people. The one great, suprenie need in this Dominion is to get the sardined people out of stifling cities, and have them humanely spread over the land, -working under the healthful canopy‘ of heaven, will the Government act upon the advice contained in:Sir David Hutchins’ report? A shortage of timber is not denied; cut at the present rate, timber ‘for industrial purposes must soon become impracticable unless systematic forestry Vis practised. There are absolutely no indications at present that the people of this world can progress without those aids n. beneficient nature has provided. It cannot be conceived that trees will ever cease to be contemporaneous with man. It is almost as easy to conceive that the Earth may be destroyed and still leave mankind suspended in space awaiting an opportunity to migrate to other worlds with for-ests to be rendered extinct, Like sane people, let us understaiid that -ilJ_('lustl“;' and trade, for which Central Europe has been famous, and will a:ga.in become famous, depended upon the practice of scientific forestry. The unlimited selection? of suitable ‘timber made Germany the foremost pianomaking country in the world. There are men in -other couiitries equally clever with Germans, but without. the selection of scientifically-grown: timber -they had better be the biggest dulfers in the world. It need not be sti-e.=.scd that New Zealaud can never become the great country nature has eminently equipped it to become without timber, for that fact is too obvious. Men like Sir David Hutcliinls, who llfL_\‘C made forestry their lift-".°.; study, recognising the intimate hr,-aring it has on the wol'ld.’s future program.-s.~ see c::laul.it_‘,' forcshadowerl in 001111?-1‘iCS ‘where land is being entirely denuded of ‘trees, anrl Jwlieroj ino: sysiem-at'ir:-, '~;(:ir-ntiflc steps are being takmi towards reaiforest'ati.on. We have referred to the humbug with ‘.vhi«:'h. people have been so often. 'regalle(l that they have become indift'erent to all publiclymade statements. Discrimination. between false and true has become just about hopeless, but Sir David 'Hu'icll- - is an authority who has no axe to grind, nor is he a. consortcr with trusts, syndicates, rings, combines, and such other insti"rut.ions of thievery. This (:ol:i:’try is zilremly sufl.'_ering acutely from sliortago of tinibcr. and when the youth of the present generation take charge of affairs they will be unable to acquire timber for carrying on industries already established, let alone extending them and starting] new ones in which timber is the chief‘ factor.