C.—'d.

New Zealand State Forest Service Organization.—Distribution of Permanent Staff as at 31st March, 1923.

CHAPTER 111. —THE STATE FORESTS. I. CONSTITUTION OF STATE FORESTS. The need for unity of control of New Zealand State-owned forest is more urgent than ever, and there tire still many thousands of acres of densely timbered Crown lands which should be dedicated to forestry. Reconnaissances of such forests have been made, with a view to ascertaining whether the timber stands are sufficiently heavy to ensure; profitable logging, or whether the forest growth should be conserved for protcctional purposes. Experience in all the older countries shows that the management of national indigenous forests by one authority is essential for the maintenance of timber-supplies and the protection of agricultural lowlands from flooding. The State; Forest Service controls a forested area of 11 per cent, of the Dominion's area ; at least another 7 per cent, should be added. Stale Forest Areas. The total Crown lands gazetted as permanent and provisional State forests as at the 31st March, 1923, was 7,250,982 acres, and the addition of 85,028 acres forest reserves makes a grand total of 7,336,010 acres of land under Forest Service control. These; figures show a net increase of 165,754 acres over those of last year, notwithstanding the fact that numerous areas have been withdrawn from provisional State Forest reservation in terms of section 20 of the Forests Act, 1921-22, to enable the land to be disposed of for settlement, and that by the passing of the Tongariro National Park Act, 1922, 67,140 acres formerly dedicated to forestry purposes were included within the boundaries of the park and thus withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the Forest authority. Detailed figures showing the areas set apart, &c, in each land district will bo found in Annexure I. There are large areas of heavily timbered Native-owned land, particularly in Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington, and Southland Regions, which should be earmarked for national timber-supply purposes. Such land is fast being sold to private speculators, to be exploited, and, after deforestation, to add further to the national flood-damage bill. The National Inventory of Forest Resources. A very large amount of work has been entailed in the preparation of this all-important record, and the field staff and draftsmen have worked splendidly, carrying out in addition their ordinary routine duties. Many forest cruises had to be made in order to ascertain the timber stand per acre, and in some cases regions previously almost unexplored have revealed very valuable blocks of timber, such as that valuable and fast disappearing species silver-pine. Forest reconnaissances were made of the whole of the Dominion, with the exception of the absolutely unexplored portions. The data are now being collated at the central office, and the final maps prepared, and will be published during the new fiscal year. Preliminary analysis shows that, of the total land area of the Dominion, 9 per cent, carries merchantable timber bush, while another 9 per cent, consists,of fern, manuka, blackberry, and gorse lands below timber-line. The plans which will supplement the published work will indicate in a broad way the distribution of forest types, and the classification of all land into agricultural, forest, grazing, fern, scrub, and barren lands. Forest Demarcation, Boundary Surveys, &c. Owing to the major attention paid to forest reconnaissances for inventory purposes, and development of the timber-sales policy, this phase; of field-work has not been pushed on during the past year. The; work has been confined to the definition of several boundaries previously in doubt, the survey of some exchanged areas, anel of plantations. As a result of the establishment of plantation boundaries, and the location of roads and tracks, communication on the plantations will be much improved. As the maps prepared during timber cruises are being utilized as the basis for topographic forest maps covering the whole of the- forests, cruisers in every case make topographic plans. The Land Surveyor held a detailed survey instruction course, which was attended by nine rangers.

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Forest-conservation Region. t4 O I DQ h O a >-S 1 P . i i § o - C>2 P4 © c> 02 O d E i p bo be 5« Si « g M g ■so -go I" I" i I g i in O H Auckland Rotorua Wellington Nelson Westland Canterbury-Otago Southland Central Office 1 1 I I 1 I I I 1 1 3 1 11 1 2 2 1 1 2 J 3 7 3 5 3 0 3 I 7 1 2 1 0 21 7 7 6 18 0 24 3 3 I I 1 2 1 1 5 Total 1 1 1 5 2 I 1 20 5 10 31 11 5 1 95