C—3a

At the conclusion of the Congress, after consultation with my co-delegates, I accepted' an invitation to participate in excursions in the forest areas of the Scandinavian countries which were being arranged by the Nordic Forest Union. Prior to leaving for Stockholm to join up with the excursion departing from there, I joined a party of delegates in a visit of inspection to a large prefabricated-house factory situated about forty-five miles from Helsinki. Here we saw a very large and efficient mill on which the enterprise was based. The organization of a dry-log-sorting yard was a feature of this plant. Here again we saw a very high proportion of women employed both in the mill and in the large factory adjoining. The sawmill here had an output of 64,000 board feet per day. Its whole output went to supply the prefabricated-house factory. I left Helsinki on 21st July by plane to Stockholm, arriving the same day. There I boarded a train for Kristenhamm, arriving there the following morning. Our party, numbering about thirty-six people, including wives of some of the delegates, was taken by cars to Brattfors Forest, on the estate of Uddeholm's, one of the largest Swedish industrial enterprises, with interests in both wood and metal. Throughout the day we travelled through various types of forest stands, with frequent halts at selected demonstration sites. Here the Swedish foresters explained their methods and invited comment and discussion. We were shown something of what was being done to improve the housing and living conditions of the forest worker and to compensate him to some extent for the isolation of his life. I took advantage of the opportunities to ask questions about the general living and working conditions of the workers in Swedish forest industries ; and I gathered from the answers that, although Sweden is a prosperous country with employment for all, the living standards of the workers were not as good as in New Zealand. Sweden, however, is proud of its progress in the field of social reform ; and I found the Swedes very eager to learn as much as possible about what we are doing in New Zealand. We spent the night at Karlstad, where we had an opportunity of observing river transport of pulpwood. The following day was spent in studies of nurseries and forest stands, with a detour to the home of the late Selma Lagerlof, one of the greatest figures in Swedish literature. Our Swedish guides were eager to make us acquainted with this other product of Swedish genius ; and for our part we appreciated the diversion. Proceeding on our way we came, after sundry halts and inspections, to Arnicka, where we had dinner. Here we were taken over by the guides for the Norwegian section of the tour. We said good-bye to our Swedish hosts and entered a bus for the night journey over the frontier to Konsvinger, arriving late at night. Early the following morning, which was Sunday, we were taken by bus to a forest estate on fairly high country. Here we were given a demonstration of Norwegian methods of forest culture. At the same time we were given the best exposition of forest economics which we had so far listened to. In the afternoon we travelled to an experimental area under the control of the Norwegian Forest Service where we were given most painstaking expositions of their methods. Some very interesting discussions were heard here. Our party included Americans, Canadians, Austrians, Swiss, Japanese, English, and Argentine delegates as well as the Director of the Forestry Division of the FAO. That night we reached Oslo. The proposal of the organizers of the tour was that the excursionists should at the completion of the Norwegian itinerary cross over to Copenhagen for a two-day excursion under the auspices of the Danish Forest Service. The fee asked for the Norwegian excursion was 222 kroner, and this included transport to Copenhagen. The programme for the Danish excursion suggested that the whole tour would be well rounded off; so I made the arrangements and obtained my ticket.

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