THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1913. THE FORESTRY COMMISSION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 18 July 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1913. THE FORESTRY COMMISSION.

The report of the Forestry Commi.. - sion, which was laid on the table < the House of Representatives th. week, makes interesting reading. One of the first recommendations made by the Commission is that the bush on mountains be reserved, so as to protect fanm lands from floods, etc. There is a matter of vital concern to many districts,, and will doubtless receive the close attention of the Government. As to deer forests and scenio reserves,- the Commissioners recommend the following additions — Poor Knights Islands, Waikare, and Moana. areas, in the Rotorua thermal district, involving the acquirement of 11,000 acres of Native lands; also all the steep banks on the Wanganui and Mokau rivers. They recommend the removal of the Waipoua State forest, conditional on the timber being milled by the Crown for the benefit of the Dominion. As regards milling forests, they recommend that their sole jurisdiction should be vested in the land boards, and that payment of half the royalties be made to the local 'bodies only on timber conveyed by road. In regard to white pine, the Commission recommend that there be no restriction on exportation, and that the dairy division should experiment exhaustively with timbers to determine their suitability for butter boxes, especially with poplars, Oregon pine, New Zealand beeches, tawa, and tariare. As regards afforestation, the Commission estimate the present consumption at 338 million feet yearly, and consider that the present rate of planting ghould be increased by at least 2-J times tho acreage of last year —viz., 2556. They submit an estimate showing that by planting 10,000 acre s with Pinus radiator, at an expenditure of £691,194 for a maturing period of 35 years, the receipts would be £908,806, or a profit of nearly £9l per acre, while by retailing the timber at from 10s to lis per hundred feet they oontend that afforestation could be made a profitable State investment. They also point out that little reliance can be placed on the foreign supply, and consider that if Old World countries recognised the necessity of planting commercial for-

ests tiher© would bo' fur raotv »oi>d for an isolated country lik« to do so. The Commissioners ro;> ■nnniMtd the establishment of a c«n ! uurvsory near Studholme Junction; Jfio th;*.t private planters and i»r, .!io I Insupplied with trece «■& cost price. They further suggosi/ & plantation in Central Otago, near Opiiir, or at Alexandra or Clyde, on the Mackenzie Plains, on the ancient, river bed 8 of Canterbury at Cuivorden, on the plain and on the slopes of Mount Isabel at Hanmer, ami on the volcanic plateau on the gum lands. In respect bo the present state of planting operations, the Commission confess that mistakes have been made. They recommend that in future these operations be placed in the hands of an executive officer to 'be appointed at an adequate salary, and that he be associated with an. advisory board of paid experts to be appointed by the Governor-in-OouncH, and that tKe present superintending nurseryman should, under the board's direction, control operations in each island and receive adequate remaineration. They further advooate encouragement of private plantations and afforestation by local bodies; After making interesting remarks on the instruction of cadets and others in forestry, the kind of trees tliat should be planted, the preparation of a book on forestry, and so on, the Commission recommend that the Land Act be amended bo as to include climatic reserves, that can be made under the Act; that "Warawara kauri forest., comprising 200 acreg of Waipoua forest, be made a inalienable -national -kauri park ; and that provision be made for the destruction of noxious animals in all scenic reserves.