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At the Rotorua Training Centre, where only temporary quarters are at present -available, five courses were conducted during the year—viz., two for timber-measurers, •one for log-scalers, and two (refresher) for senior field officers and for senior clerical respectively (see Appendix XI). The instructors were seconded from the. perma.--nent staff of the Service. A more ambitious programme, including short courses for both field and professional trainees, is already planned for this year. An important development during the year was the acquisition of a well-appointed hostel at Tapanui, where a vocational training school for the South Island has now been established. At this centre 38 ex-servicemen have already been instructed in leading hands' duties, and a continuous series of six-weekly courses will be carried on throughout this year. A vocational school is also being provided at the Rotorua Training Centre, where similar -classes will commence during the winter. At the saw-doctors' school at Waipa State Mill 2 ex-servicemen received instruction during the year. 22. Examinations. —Two trainees completed their M.Sc. degree during the year, and 60 men attending courses at the Rotorua Training Centre and the Tapanui Vocational School were successful in passing the various examinations (see Appendix XI). 23. Allocation of Duties. —Some progress has been made with the setting-up of separate divisions for each distinct activity of the Forest Service. Acceptance of the proposals submitted to the Government will involve a major staff reorganization. Key personnel will be drawn from existing staff, but it is obvious that additional officers of senior grades must be recruited from other Departments and perhaps from outside the Public Service. As yet no appreciable difference has been made in the administration of timber - •control activities in so far as the allocation of staff is concerned. The post-war demand for timber is so acute that senior officers at Head Office and in the conservancies are still required to spend considerable time on such matters, and it is a cause for congratulation that these duties have been lightened by the retention of some officers after their normal retiring-age. 24. Field and Office Inspections. —The continued demand for increased timber.production has resulted in most field inspectional work being directed towards that ■objective, special inspections having been made of reserve areas of indigenous forest and of those exotic stands from which saw-logs can be secured either by thinning or by clear-felling. Both field and office inspections generally have been restricted through the necessity of senior officers carrying out formal training and reorganizational duties. 25. Conservancy Organization.—As indicated in paragraph 23, progress has been made in the reorganization of the Forest Service into divisions, making it necessary to •defer temporarily the setting-up of minor territorial charges within *the conservancies. Here, again, key staff is not immediately available and progress can only be made through the acceleration of training activities. 26. Inter-departmental Co-operation. —-The constantly increasing scope and complexity of rehabilitation and post-war activities and problems have necessitated more intimate co-operation than ever before with many departments, principally the offices of the Commissioner of Works, of the Building and Shipping Controllers, and of the Railways Department. Special tribute must be accorded the three Armed Services, the Public Works, Post and Telegraph, Police, and Internal Affairs Departments, the Inspector of Fire Brigades, and the Auckland, Wanganui, Palmerston North, and Wellington Fire Brigades for their co-operation and assistance in fighting the Taupo forest fires, without which much more extensive losses would have been sustained. CHAPTER lII.—CONSTITUTION OF STATE FORESTS 27. Changes in Area. —During the year 42,367 acres were set apart as permanent -.and provisional State forest and 766 acres were withdrawn from reservation—a net increase of 41,601 acres. The area under State forest reservation now totals 9,189,763 -acres, representing 13-84 per cent, of the total land area of the Dominion.

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