FOREST WASTE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 162, 8 January 1914, Page 6

FOREST WASTE

SIR RIDER HAGGARD OS NEW ZEALAND. j' London, November 21. At the Authors' Club, of all places, there was a, most interesting discussion on tho value of afforestation. Sir Rider Haggard was there and also Sir William (Schlich, Profc->.OT of Forestry at Oxford j University. The chairman (Mr. D. E. lliitchens), who opened the discussion, said that, speaking purely as a forester, there was no doubt of the. immense importance to forestry in the present attitude of the Government. This attitude would find its echo iu every corner of the Xiritish Empire where there were forests, and it would afford encouragement and help those who for a generation had beov I'lg'htiiig for a sound forest policy in tho colonies. We are spending .030,000,000 a year on foreign timber and paper pulp which could be produced at home if only a fraction of the waste lands were planted, llow had it come about that during I the last forty years, while our neighbors—(ierman, France, Belgium and the .(United States of America—had all pushed ahead with their State forestry, we I had rather gone back ? Tho answer was I the absence in this country of any popular sentiment in favor of State forests.

I Sir W. Schlich deprecated the suggestion of the Commission on Coast Erosion land Forestry, which proposed the afforestation of some 2,000,000 acres now under cultivation, and thereby practically paralysed their proposal of afforesting some additional 7,000,000 acres now 'used for agriculture, inasmuch as one ■acre of cultivation required at lca„t as much labor as live to ten years of forest. It had been estimated that the existing -3.000,000 acres of wood lands in this country produced about 3,000,000 tons of limber, a liberal allowance, and on an aerage 10,00,000 ton s was imported. Of that quantity only 2,500,000 tons eame from llritish colonies, and 7,500.000 from foreign countries. Some .1:20,000,,000 to £30,000,000' was paid for that limber, delivered at English ports. . WHAT IT WILL PAY.

"Guided by my long experience," added Sir William', "I have come to the conclusion that land which is worth less I than 10s an acre a year can, under proper management, be made to yield 3 per cent, on the invested capital, allowing compound interest all round, under | climate, like that possessed by these islands. Of course, 3 per cent, interest •at the present boom of industrial and , commercial activity wHI by many people 14)0 looked at with contempt. Hut there are ups and downs in this direction, and '•the time may not he very far oil' when | a certain income of 3 per cent, may once '.more he looked upon us highly desirable. I Woods, once brought under' systematic •management, and treated accordingly, to correct sylvieultnral principles, give a .steady income year after year, and proprietors can at night put their heads on their pillows without the uncertainty of the ups and downs in the city." 'Sir Rider Haggard said he'had .-ecu •thing, in Australasia calculated lo make the heart of any forester bleed. lie fmighf take the' instance of the kauri pine in New Zealand, which, perhaps, was the most marvellous tree in (he world. It had been calculated thai -,ouie of these trees had attained the age of 0000 years. He could only sav as to • that, that he saw one which had been • Idled, and he tried to count the rings on it, and when he got to 2000 he gave it up. This tree had the habit of shedding its bark each year, which formed ,i 'mound around the base, and iu the case of one giant (ice, four of Ihe partv, standing on the mound, tired to span it at a height of 12 feet from the base, and there remained 12 feet or 14 feet unspanned, so he calculated the circumference at that height to be not less than 10 feet. Thousands of years if has •stood there, but it and its fellows were all condemned to the axe within the next lew months. These trees were, being destroyed, sometimes on the idea that they should be turned into moncv, or that tho ground should be used for the settlers, or that fire might gel. to them. The same thing was going on everywhere.

■ "In Australia and New Zealand I look■C(l on those ghastly stumps wherever my eye fell. Much of the land must be •cleared for settlement. But 1 have seen ■places, especially iu New Zealand, where no hellement can ever come—cloofs in the precipitous cliffs—and still (here the timber is being Hmrned, destroyed, wasled. The same thing is happening in England. The woods we have, if they have not been scientifically fostered, are •very beautiful, producing the oak, which has been of such service, to our country in the past, and is in a sense still our glory.' ' (Cheers).