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Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2440, 1 March 1888, Page 2

From a return on the present position of the State Forest Department, we learn that many thousands of oak, jural), and other eucalypti, kauri, tanekalia, and other trees have been grown for planting out next season ; also nursery beds have been sown with totara, C'aljfonjiau redwood, Douglas fir, and others, including several profitable timber-trees not previously cultivated in the coiony, Setting aside the amount of useful work already done by the Department in the direction of .conserving .our forests, it is very gratifying to notice the .\vise preparation:-', that are being made upon 3. systematic scale to replace the yalijabJe timber we havealready used and recklessly wasted in the past. Professor Kirk thinks the department will soon be selfsupporting, the revenue obtained from the state forests i?as, from the first, afforded a ' surplus alter defraying, all fiOst of .administration, including protection, valuation, &c; but the formation of plantation* necessarily involves a eon-

siderable outlay, which is nnrcmuncrativo for a few year?. The plantations at Rangiriri aro well advanced ; but besides that°district, as we pointed out on a former occasion, there are tracts of land in tiui I'iako or Thames valley that could be well utilised for similar purposes and would eventually very beneficial to that part of the country.