The Daily News MONDAY, AUGUST 24. STATE FORESTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 208, 24 August 1908, Page 2

The Daily News MONDAY, AUGUST 24. STATE FORESTRY.

Some importance is attached to the' annual rcpoit on .-date Nurseries and Plantations this year on account.of Hie controversy thai has been raging over the importation of Oregon pine. \\ hat bearing tin; imported umber has upon the local industry is shown by ihe lact thai whereas the timber cut the Dominion last year amounted to -132,000,000 feet, tin; inipoitaiioii, were estimated at 2,0(1t1,UU0 feel. One'would haVe concluded iioin ihe extent of the sawmillers' protestations that their position was being imperilled anil undermined by the importations, but in the light of the above ligures no disinterested person can believe thai the alleged slump in the industry is due to this cause. The cause must be looked lor in other directions, instead of a menace, the iniporliliuns are really an advantage to the in dusiry, and a blessing in disguise. .More especially are they an advantage to. the colony because the more ■ timber there is imported the longer will our remaining forests last. That this is ,i, is evident from the report of the t nderSecretary for Lands, .Mr. W. C. Kensington.

This is what he has lo say:—"As lias been' frequently pointed out, the cutting and utilisation of the indigenous forests by the »awmiJlers is proceeding at such a rapid rate in New Zealand tnat it is only a matter of a very few years (comparatively) when the greater part, of our timber supply must be ,h----tained from abroad. Each year-sees the output larger, and the resources of the Dominion smaller, and though the Government has taken the matter in hand with commendable foresight by the establishment of State plantations of timber trees, yet it iiiusi be at least from thirty to forty years before any great supply can be calculated from this source. Under these circumstances il appears imperative to restrict the present indiscriminate sawniilling of all available forests to such an cxtcul as will ensure their gradual disappearance synchronous with the development and growth of the State plantations, so that as the one fails the other may take its place."' Unless .such steps are immediately taken it follows, iu .Mr. Kensington's opinion, that before long there will be no reserve of native timber, and prices will vise .o such a figure as would seriously emharass many of the growing industries of New Zealand.

The wanting is serious enough ami should be taken to heart. The estimate of milling timber available in New Zealand is given at 3Ii,OUO,UUO,Ui)O feet, of which more than a third exists in the two districts of Xetson and Westlaud, where timber can only be cut and marketed with considerable difficulty. Air. Kensington therefore estimates that at the present rate of consumption the available supply is not good for more than fifty years. But the consumption has doubled in the last live year*, and if the increase goes on the supply will run out long before the time mentioned. And it should also be remembered that long before the price of timber will have gone up, as it has been going up during the last ton years, so that the consumer will tind it a serious lax on his business undertakings.

Another testimony to the same effect comes from the Auckland district. According to the report: "Owing to the greater remoteness and scarcity if kauri and the increasing difficulty of obtaining adecptate supplies of suitable nalive-jjrowu timber to meet local requirements, regular importation-! of Oregon or other pine in increasing quantities must be looked for in future.'' There are, of course, other reasons why the existing forest areas ot the country should be carefully reserved beside the industrial. There, is the climatic reason. It is necessary to exercise fare tlmt a too rapid destruction of the liresent forest areas, which are smaller than those which clothed the islands when iirst colonised by Europeans, does not injuriously all'ect the annual rai-i----fall in volume and extent and reduce the present water-holding power of I In' laud. And last, there is the reason connected with the prevention of soil denudation, which makes it desirable to retain the forest covering on sleep slopes so as to prevent slips by which soil would be carried away in heavy rainfall and the danger of Hoods in the lower lying lands increased.

The Government is, of course, doing something in the way of tree-planting. Apparently some eighteen million trees have been planted in the different Stale plantations. But this is not enough in view of future requirements. "It is .probable," says Mr. .Mathews, "that out of the live or six million trees planted annually nut more than a third will eventually survive the renoated thinning processes and reach maturity. .Moreover, long before they reach mi age at which the best results can lie expected, the scarcity of timber ill Ne>v Zealand is likely to be: such that there will be a general demand for the utilisation of the trees for immediate use is soon as they are in any way suitable for the. requirements of our trades." It is (bar that greater efforts in this direction are needed. As for the conservation of existing State forests, .Mr. .Mathews is of opinion that "it may be necessary later on to appoint a special officer to supervise the cutting and milling operations in these forests somewhat after the scheme adopted in the Indian Empire and in France and tiermany, where only systematic and limited cutting is sanctioned under rigid safeguards for the protoctjxm of all trees not specially authorised to be felled." In view of these opinions it seems pretty clear, as a contemporary points out, that the Government must reconsider before long the whole question o! the timber supply.