The Daily News. THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1920. INDISCRIMINATE FOREST DESTRUCTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 March 1920, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1920. INDISCRIMINATE FOREST DESTRUCTION.

"It is difficult to discern that the country (New Zealand) has ever been called upon to face so serious an issue as that now before it in the forest question; for indiscriminate forest destruction has gone so far that only a short further persistence in the present policy will render the restoration of the forests almost impossible at any reasonable cost. That will mean the final loss of the finest forests in the. Southern Hemisphere, and with them the loss of an export trade worth, in the future, more than either wool or dairy produce." This ominous statement forms part of the valuable report recently made to the Dominion Government by Sir David Hntehins, F.R.G.S., who., for the last fifty years, or more, has made forestry a special study, having been chief conservator of forests in British East Africa and South Africa covering a period of 27 years, besides ten years in the Indian forest service, and experience in Australia and Germany. This biographical summary is mentioned to emphasise that Sir David is thoroughly conversant with the subject, and therefore his opinions must carry the weight of an expert authority. It was only so re- \ cently as last year that the urgent needs of the rapidly dwindling forest resources of the Dominion impelled the creation of a separate. Department of Forestry, under the control of a director, and the Government was well advised in engaging Sir David Huteliins to make a report on the position of the forests of the Dominion. That report is by no means pleasant reading, as may bo judged from the extract quoted above. In the Dominion Official Year-Book for 1910 (just to hand) appears an extract from the annual report of the Forestry Branch of the Lands Department for 1916-17, which shows how rapidly the indigenous timber forests of the country are .disaspearinsr. It is stated that if

the present annual rate of cutting kauri (52,000,000 feet) is continued, the supply will not last more than seven years, and at the past rate of conversion the present stand of all timbers in the Auckland Land District will not last twenty years, while in Taranaki and Hawke's Bay only a few small areas of milling forests are left, and in the Wellington district the supply will last for little more than a decade. In the South Island there is no milling forest left in Canterbury; the area in Nelson and' Marlborough is very small; Otago has scarcely enough for local requirements, and the Southland supply of red pine will be exhausted in about 28 years, the white pine in sixteen. The loss of the Dominion's timber supplies is of far more serious import than is generally realised, and nothing but State intervention, coupled with an adequate policy of reafforestation will suffice. The amount of waste of valuable timber under the process of settlement has been appalling, the result being felt keenly to-day, and will be far more acutely expe • ienced in the future in the direction of ever soaring prices. Admitting that a quantity of Oregon and Australian hardwood is be ing imported, amounting last vear to 11,750,818 superficial feet," the amount of white pine, rimu, and kauri, etc., exported reached 68. 697,103 superficial feet, so that although we are nearing the end of our timber resources, we are exporting more than six times the quantity imported. Nine-tenths of the kauri forests have disappeared, and Sir David Hutchins suggests that half-a-milliou acres, chiefly at Coromandel and Hokianga, might be saved by a policy of liberal demarcation and redemption. The Government has made a start in raising and planting trees, but has only touched the fringe of the work, possibly because the expenditure involved is heavy, and the returns will not materialise for many years to come. It would seem that a work of even greater importance is the regeneration of forests, which can, it is said, be fully inter-planted with standards for about £2 pcacre, as against £lO to £l3 'unmaking entirely new forests by v.' full plantation of timber in the open. The total area of forest now owned by the State is about 10,478,247 acres, but of this area only 1,371,000 acres can be regarded as possessing timber of milling value. Besides this there are areas of forest on private and Native lands, all of which will probably disappear in a few years unless conserved. According to Sir David Hutchins, if the Government neglects the native forests altogether and relies solely on tree planting, by the time the new timber is ready to cut it will cost £800,000,000. The State possesses over nine million acres of forest, the timber in which is of no use for milling. It would seem, therefore, that the businesslike course to follow would be to eliminate the unprofitable timber and regenerate these forests with trees that will be of inestimable value to the Do- ! minion in years to come. It certainly appears imperative t) conserve all the useful timber Hat now remains in the country, to stop the alienation of heavily tim bered country of low settlement value, and to utilise instead those large areas of land that have hitherto been regarded as useless for cultivation, but some of which, when properly treated, have yielded satisfactory results. Sir David Hutchins has strongly emphasised the duty of the State in regard to future timber supplies. He has pointed out what is being clone, by foreign countries in this matter, and he has placed before the people of the Dominion in his valuable report the square issue of whether New Zealand is to have, national forests which will eventually bear more than the whole, its enhanced liabilities without national forests. Hitherto, in the process of settlement, millions of feet, of timber have beeu reduced to smoke and ashes. The time has come when this should no longer be permitted. The disaster of a bush fire is bad enough without the wilful waste of the past, which, if allowed to be continue!, will press heavily on the people.