OUR TIMBER SUPPLY.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43115, 18 July 1907, Page 4

OUR TIMBER SUPPLY.

In the annual report of the Lands Department, upon the timber industry in, New Zealand it. is stated that as the; Grown has for some time past parted with its forest lands by way of sale, j it is not now able to control the fell- j ing and destruction, of the remaining forests to any great extent,. The approximate quantity of milling timber on Crown Lands is given at 18,666,300,081 superficial feet, and the ap-j proximate quantity on private and na-1 tive lands at 17,119,573,386 superft-j 1 cia.l feet. A: review of the position discloses that if the destruction of native forests in the north continues at the present rate it will cause a cessation of the sawmilling industry there; within some fifteen years. In the southern part of Hawke’s Bay district it is estimated that in four years time there will 'be- few, if any, mills working, and already mill owners are securing forest areas outside the district. Taranaki ha® a, fair supply, but’ it is largely inaccessible. Generally speaking the timber supplies in New Zealand are stated tio be rapidly diminishing! both irr quantity and quality. A more hopeful note isi sounded later on in the report, which states that the efforts of the reafforestation branch of the department have already made a, perceptible difference in the quantity of timber—trees will be available for milling operations in some twenty years time and onwards. Over fifteen million trees have been planted out. in the thirteen Government plantations, and fifteen million are growing in the State nurseries* and! are available,- foil planting. |