THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JULY 2, 1908. CONSERVATION OF TIMBER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9131, 2 July 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JULY 2, 1908. CONSERVATION OF TIMBER.

Recently reference was made in these columns regarding the necessity of a I vigorious policy of afforestation in I the Dominion. The reckless destrue- ! tion of timber in the past has resulted in denudition of our forest wealth, and even now difficulty is often experienced in obtaining suitable timber. The question of conservation of timber is being keenly taken up by other countries than New Zealand, and in contrast to our method it is interesting to note the Bplendid progress the American people are making in connection with conserving their forest growth. The move ments of their Bureau of Forestry during the last few years have awakened considerable interest in the work, and not only is the nation, as represented by the Bureau, now engaged in it, but many States are taking very decided and important steps to preserve nntural forests or to create new ones. The Forest Service now has administration over more than 164,000,000 acreß of land, and

plans are well on foot to extend the area by creating large fortsta in some of the Eastern States. As the Federal Government does- not own land in these States, it is necessary for Congress to appropriate money and buy up fore3t areas that it is deemed advisable should be under Federal control. At the present time Bills are pending in Congress, providing for the appropriation of five millions dollars for the purchase of a very large tract of mountainous forest country. According to the provisions of (he Bills, the Secretary for Agriculture is authorised to acquire "by purchase or gift lands more valuable for the/ regulation of stream flow than for other purposes, and situated on the watersheds of navigable streams in the Southern Appalachian Mountains within the States of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and in the White Mountains' within the States of New Hampshire and Maine." In these purchases the mineral wealth and mercantile timber remain the property of the original owners. It is, however, the intention of the Government to immediately introduce scientific and up-to-date forestry methods, and, at the request of owners, to protect and develop any forests under private control within the prescribed area. At the outset it is proposed to buy rough or "cut-over" land, where it may he secured at average prices ranging from three and a half to six dollars an acre (about 14s 6d and 255, respectively). Each State is to receive 10 per cent of th« total proceeds from the sale of timber and from all other Government receipts. To make this plan successful it is obvious that extensive co-operation of private owners of timber land must be secured, but in view of the beneficial results which have followed in cases in which owners of privata forests in other States have imitated the methods pursued by the Government in the management of their forest 3, there seems little likelihood of a "helping hand" being withheld in this quarter. The passage of the two Bills now before Congress will add 5,600,000 acres to the forest area under Government control, and thus bring the total national forest holdings to about 270,000 square miles. In other words, coming nearer home for a comparison, it means that America will then have an area nearly three times the size of the whole surface area of the Dominion of New Zealand on which timber standing will be protected against file, theft and,wasteful exploitation.