THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1912. REAFFORESTATION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10695, 16 August 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1912. REAFFORESTATION.

' The Masterton .County Council had the subject of reafforestation brought under its notice this week by the Secretary: to the Agricultural Department. The local bodies are, of course, helpless in this matter. The demand, upon their funds for maintenance work is so great that they cannot af.ford to indulge in tree-planting experiments, highly important though they miy be. It is necessary, however, that the people of this Dominic.! .should bo brought to realise the immense importance cf the subject of reafforestation. Slowly but surely our primitive forests are being denuded to provide homes for settlers. Year by year the asset in our native timbers is growing smaller. Even now the price of timber mid firewood is almost prohibitive in the older-settled districts. It is only" a question of years J —and not many years at that—when firewood and timber for building purposes will be an exceedingly scarce commodity. Our coal supplies aire certainly bountiful, and ferro-con Crete ig supplanting timber for hou.:e-build-ing purposes. But what is to become of the town dweller when a coal strike takes place and we have no .firewood to fall back upon ? And how are we going to line our houses when' tho timber has disappeared? These and other questions at once arise. The importance of re-afforestation, however, is .not confined'alone to timber and firewood. As the natural bush disappears the climatic conditions alter and tho water supply is diminished. The forests have the effect of moderating the extremes- in temperature. They make the temperature of day and night, summer and winter, more equable, and they beautify the landscape and make existence more pleasant. It is gratifying to note that the Government, in recent years, has been devoting itself to the work of re-af-forestation, and we have no doubt that the Massey Government will be equally energetic in this respect. A report presented to the House of Bepresentatives last week, showed that dur- I ing the twelve months ended 31st March, 1912, no less than 8,563,650 ! trees were raised from seed in the four nurseries; 8,512,079 trees were despatched from them for planting out; and it is estimated that 16,807,400 trees remain therein at the close of the year. The expenditure for the year on the nurseries was £BIO3 0/s

Bd, bringing the total expenditure from the establishment of tho nurseries in 1890 to £96,593 9s 2d, of which £19,744 18s 3d represents tho cost of permanent works*. during this period a total of 71,904,234 trees have been raised and made availablo for the work of afforestation. In the plantations under the control of the Afforestation Branch a fresh area of 2566 acres was .planted in the twelve months. The expenditure on tho whole.ami of plantations was £14,587, and frora their commencement in 189G, £121,8-10. A gross area of 18,870 acres ins been planted during tlr.c period, 1 and lit is cstimak f that 44,568,505 fcrocs are growing thereon.