THE Wairarapa Age. MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1907. THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8490, 19 July 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age. MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1907. THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

The annual report on the Timber Industry of New Zealand, recently to hand, is of considerable interest and importance. It appears that the timber-supplies in New Zealand are rapidly diminishing, both in quantity and quality. Whereas in 1905 there was estimated to be a total of 43,000,000,000 superficial feet of milling timber in the various districts, it now appears that the amount has fallen to about 36,000,000,000 superficial feet, although the annual output has risen from 413,289,742 feet to 432,031,611 feet. It must be borne in mind that a very large proportion of the above remaining timber, though suitable for milling purposes, is not readily available owing to difficulty of communication, and expense of cutting and conveying same to the centres where it is required. Other causes, such as smallness of areas containing milling timber, and consequent unremunerative working of same; waste of timber in cutting and milling operations; destruction of forests by bush fires, and clearing land for settlement; and the necessity of preserving certain forests for climatic, water supply, land protection, and scenic purposes, also ten 3 to limit the quantity of timber available for milling requirements, and it appears certain that the supply is not likely to last beyond the seventy years estimated in 1905, and will possibly fall short of this period to a considerable extent. "In considering this great industry," remarks Mr W. C Kensington, UnderSecretary for Lands, "many aspects of the case have to be carefully studied.. On the one hand, timber merchants and the carpentering trade all over New Zealand require and demand to be supplied with suitable

timber for their needs out of the forests now standing on unoccupied land. The work of the contractor, builder, cabinetmaker, and allied trades would be seriously hampered if any great proportion of their requirements had to be derived from outside the colony, and as at the present time there are 411 mills in operation, employing 7,139 labourers, who, with other workers in the bush and their dependents, represent some twenty to twenty-five thousand souls, a severe blow would be dealt to the industry were its operations disturbed in this manner. Again, the process of felling and removing milling timber from the land largely helps to open it up for settlement purposes, and thereby assists in some measure the work of colonisation. Considerations such as these tend to strengthen the arguments of those persons who desire to see our indigenous forests practically swept away to meet the requirements of the sawmilling trade. But, on the other hand, it is essential to keep in mind the great lessons of past ages, and to s guard against a similar fate overtaking New Zealand as has happened to so many other flourishing countries in the world." A number of extracts are given showing how the problem has been studied elsewhere. "To sum up," continues the report, "the destructive results following xvrm the indiscriminate clearing of forest lands, particularly at the sources of streams and along their banks, are only too well known. Hardly a country in the world has escaped from the inevitable consequences of the disappearance of indigenous forests. Spain was at one time one of tha richest and most powerful nations, but the country is now one of the poorest and driest in Europe, owing to the scanty annual rainfall consequent on the denudation of its forest areas. Asia Minor, North Africa, Arabia, are all conspicuous examples of regions that once were clothed with extensive forests and supported dense populations, but at the present time are inhabited by comparatively few people over a large proportion of their areas, through the fertile wooded land<? deteriorating into barren sandy wastes. Italy and many other European countries have also experienced in slighter degress the evil effects of forest denudation. As a consequence, schools of forestry, and systematic afforestation, are now a feature of the modern State Governments, particularly in Germany, France, the United States, and India. There the lessons of the past are borne in mind, and future evils guarded against as far as possible. New Zealand has so far only experienced the injurious effects of forest denudation in lesser degree, but already it has been noticed how much more disastrous the floods become, as witness the great floods of Easter, 1897, in Hawke's Bay and Rangitikei, and the Auckland and Waikato floods of last January. As years go on and the area of forest lands grows less, so much more difficult will it be to retain the surplus moisture from heavy rains and prevent sudden and excessive rises in the volume of river waters sweeping away bridges, banks, and doing other damage However, the Government has for some years been gradually working with a view to supplement the resources of our native forests, and the efforts of the re-afforestation branch of this Department have already made a perceptible difference in the quantity of timber trees that will be available for milling operations in some twenty years' time and onwards."