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Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 4048, 19 December 1881, Page 2

It would be stale news to the New Zealand public to inform them that kauri timber is a valuable source of revenue, but a few remarks on the subject may not be inopportune. Dr Hector estimates that the whole forest area of the Colony is about 20,CC0,000 acres. The yield of New Zealand forest to the acre has. not yet been officially determined, but sawmillers have given an opinion that the average yield is not greater than 15,000 feet (o the acre. In Southland, however, the observations made by Captain Campbell Walker and Mr Kirk prove^the yield to be almost double that amount. However that may be, 15.0C0 superficial feet may be safely admitted as a moderate average. The average annual quantity of timber cut is 200,000,000 superficial feet, and it becomes a question as to .how long the natural resources of the colony will bear this strain. . In the old Country the utmost care is taken of the: forests, and for every tree cut down there are upwards of a score saplings planted. By this means the country has a continual source of timber in prospect, and it appears to us to be high time for New Zealand to follow in the steps of the Mother Country. If cutting kauri is prosecuted for the next twenty years to such an extent as at present, we may expect to see ourselves ruined so far as the timber is concerned. It must be remembered that '20 years is not much for the growth of kauri, and if we go on cutting limber down as fast as we do now we shall inevitably suffer in the future for our present recklessness. No doubt can now exist of theinexpediency of disposing Crown forests at almost nominal prices, and such a course could only be supported by the plea of imperative financial necessity, which, if necessary, could be met with greater advantage to the Treasury and Colony at large, by other means than improvident alienations. It is imperative that this question should be thoroughly discussed by our statesmen, as it must be evident even to the most obtuse reader that New Zealand cannot stand the strain of continuous destruction of forests without making provision for a future supply iv the way we have iudicatcd.