Afforestation in New Zealand

Progress, Volume XII, Issue 9, 1 May 1917, Page 959

Afforestation in New Zealand

The following paper (continued from our April issue) by Mr. S. I. Clarke, was read to members of the Industrial Corporation oi N. Z. at its Annual Meeting in Auckland last month. It is f the first of a series of articles to be published by this Journal as a stimulus to Local Industries. Mr. Clarke clearly warns us of the seriousness of _ * this question of our future timber supplies, and quotes many 1/ authorities in other countries showing how the question is viewed abroad. II

ROYAL COMMISSIONS IN N.Z. Full particulars of the nature, the extent, and the treatment of our native forests are given in the reports of the two Royal Commissions which have reported to the New Zealand Parliament on these questions. Of the first “Commission on Timber and Timber-Building Industries 1909,” it may be said that three fourths of its members were at the time members of the Dominion Parliament, and that the names of three of the number are now on the lists of the present, or of past Ministries, the remaining fourth being men of long experience in various branches of the timber trade.

The enquiry involved the examination on oath of 154 witnesses, and was held at all the important centres of the timber industries, the witnesses included representatives of all the timber industries, both as employers and workers, and including the builders on the list represented the employing of over 10,000 hands, and the working of many thousand pounds worth of machinery.

The report and evidence occupies nearly 900 pages of printed matter, which I may remind you, is not a collection of the views of armchair philosophers, or if incidental enquirers, but is the recorded experiences and hard earned knowledge of a large number of capable and practical men.

On page xxxvi. of the Commission's report, after urging in the strongest manner the systematic attention of the Government to the forestry question, the warning is added that: —"Unless some such steps as these are immediately taken, it follows that, although for a few years the demand can be fairly well satisfied, before long there would be no reserve of native timber, and the price would rise to a figure which would seriously embarrass many of the growing industries of New Zealand." One has only to look at the present retail price list of timber, and of stock articles made of that material to see how quickly that prophesy is being fulfilled.

The report of the later Royal Commission on Forestry of 1913 is more directly concerned with the economic phases of the timber problem, and does not go into industrial details, but its six members having been chosen for the special purpose of the enquiry, it may be assumed to be no mere random selection of names. There is every reason to hope that time and circumstances will prove that the conclusions and recommendations embodied in its report may avcll be taken as a basis of support by this, or any other organization Avhose wish and aim is to further the cause of forestry in New Zealand. As in the case of the earlier enquirers, the forecasts in the report arc rapidly being shown to be on sound lines, and will, I believe, be more likely to be in error on the side of caution than on that of extravagance.

TO OVERCOME THE DIFFICULTY As we have dealt with the disease, we must at least devote a few minutes to the remedies suggested at various times and places. These may be reduced to about three propositions, which we will review briefly, and without committing any one to the several views and opinions which may be submitted for consideration. They are as follows: — No. 1. —To aim at the regeneration and restoration of our natural forests, as near as may be with their natural situations and conditions, and with as much, or as little assistance and interference from man as Nature may be able to tolerate. No. 2. —To seek to amplify and improve our forests by the intermixture of trees introduced from other localities and other countries.

No. 3. —To establish what are sometimes termed artificial forests by the afforestation of bare lands of a quality too poor for agricultural or pastoral profit.

Of the first proposal it is safe to say that a return of the forest to its virgin state can only be possible by a return to virginal conditions, which would exclude the presence of civilized man, and all his works. Common observation in our bush areas shows that although the cleared spaces rapidly fill up, the re-growth follows the great natural law of the survival of the fittest, which, from an economic standpoint may be quite the reverse of the fittest for purposes of trade. In no department of Nature is the struggle for existence more relentless and unceasing than in the natural forest, where every circumstance of wind and weather is a factor in favour of the tree or shrub, whose seeds are most readily transported by the wind or other agencies, whose germination and growth is of the quickest and strongest order, or whose endurance of light, or shade, may be the most suitable for the actual situation. The introduction of fresh native timbers by transplanting is made difficult from the fact that our best trees do not readily submit to handling and removal.

Of the second proposition we have to bear in mind that the imported trees would of necessity be of a different natural order from the indigenous growth, and only by continuous care and expense could the more susceptible native trees be preserved from suppression by the more vigorous and aggressive growth of the new comer. There is much to be said in favour of such methods of working forest lands as have been in operation for comparatively long periods of time in certain parts of Europe, but these have proved no more than a partial remedy for the complaint of scarcity, since both France and Germany (where such methods have been most systematically applied), find it still necessary to import timber in large quantities.

Further, the European measure of success is no proof that the same treatment would produce like results in our own forests, since it would be applied under such totally different circumstances, and to a different class of trees. There is the same difference with regard to the United States of America, where over 80 per cent, of the total sawn output is obtained from the coniferous branch of the tree family. Our best timber tree, the kauri, is the only New Zealand representative of that order (using the term coniferous as applied to the typical conifers of European and American commerce, and not as a botanical distinction).

There are the further differences of racial, political, social, and industrial conditions under which the work is carried on in Europe as compared with the conditions of life in New Zealand. WILL IT PAY? But the most important question of all, regarding the regeneration of our natural forest is, —Will it pay?—ls the game worth the candle? Even if we can restore our forests, will they give us what we require? which is not simply frees, but the best of trees as regards strength, combined with lightness, ease in working and durability. The answer to these questions involves a comparison as to qualities and characteristics of our own timber trees with the great conifers of northern latitudes.

Taking the every day uses of timber for building and other construction purposes, as a basis of comparison, and leaving out of account our noble kauri tree, which is nearing the point of exhaustion, our native timbers which meet the above requirements are few in number, and it must be admitted inferior in quality. The rimu is the most widely distributed, and the most in favour for general purposes, it is in many ways a beautiful, and useful timber, but owing to its natural order as regards structural arrangement of growth, it is difficult to define the lines between the heart and the sap wood, and practically impossible to cut up the log to conform with those lines, thus although in a general sense it is a good timber there is that serious defect of want, or lack of certainty as to its durab' i,.

The remainder of the timber trees are mostly of the Podocarpus failing, and with the exception of the totara, are of but medium qualities, and limited uses. The totara (the heart wood only) has the property of lasting well in contact with the ground or with water, but it is about the most wasteful of our timbers in its conversion into sawn material, varying from about 30 to 40 per cent.

The kahikatea, of the same species, is of value for short service but in this country is now used chiefly for box making. I should say it would bo sheer waste of money to try to extend the growth of the remaining two of the same order, the miro, and the matai. The heart of the latter is good timber, but in common with all our indigenous trees its rate of growth is much too slow to admit its use with any hope of profit. It must be distinctly borne in mind that I am not an advocate of the destruction of these timbers. On the contrary, lam in favour of their conservation in existing forests wherever pos-

sible, but we arc now dealing with future supplies, and their supply on an economic basis. With regard to the amount of timber grown on a given area, the latest returns of the Lands Department give it as an average of 15,000 superficial feet per acre, but even if this includes the heavy yield of the kauri area it is certain that there is here some printer’s error, or else a considerable margin of safety has been allowed to prevent the Department being accused of making alarmist statements, as might be the case in view of the further statement in the report that “most of the trees in the plantations will not have reached a size large enough for profitable sawing until many years after our native supplies have been exhausted,” and that “we are now depleting our timber reserves at the rate of 24,000 acres yearly, and consuming 360,000.000 superficial feet per annum.” WHAT TO PLANT When we come to consider the last of our propositions, that of planting the best selection of imported varieties of trees, and to compare the amount of timber to be obtained on the same area as before mentioned, coupled with the much shorter period of rotation of the crop, the evidence is, I consider in favour of this latter system. Whereas a return of 10,000 superficial feet per acre, with a very long period of growth in reaching a profitable or rather useful cutting age with respect to our native trees, we find on the other hand actual evidence before our eyes (and in localities of the Dominion very wide apart), many instances where upwards of one hundred thousand feet per acre can be measured as the rate of yield. And there are places where double this extraordinary amount of growth is found, coupled with the fact that in nearly every case the age of the trees is under forty-five years. It is the case of one variety of the pine species, the pinus radiata, or insignis, as it is better known with us, which tree, by the way, is not appreciated as it should be. Originally planted in most cases as a shelter, or for shade, it so quickly overgrew and overshadowed everything else as to become somewhat of a nuisance, and in too many instances is now regarded as such. It is in reality a valuable timber tree.

A few others of the conifers are almost equally sure to bring the like kind of profit, while in many cases an odd corner of the farm, or a spare plot of public land could be turned to great advantage in a comparatively short time by planting it with selected kinds of the Australian Eucalyptus trees. And in this connection it is not sufficiently well known that large numbers of our fellow citizens and settlers have shown most conclusively that the profit is not long in coming, and is very real when it does come, as will be seen by a perusal of the report of the New Zealand Forestry Commission 1913, notably in a contribution by the Rev. J. H. Simmonds, Wesley Training College, Auckland, on the Timber Eucalyptus in New Zealand, and the evidence of Mr. Reynolds of Trecarne near Cambridge. From this latter farm and from a thinly planted area of less than three acres there have

already been taken 3,000 fencing posts, 250 stockyard rails, 200 gate-posts, besides saplings and all the firewood for the estate, and the still standing trees will yield twice as many more. On Mr. R. Gillett’s farm near Hamilton even better results have been obtained from small plantations put down in 1881 and 1884, and from experience in connection with which Mr. Gillctt infers that an acre of Eucalypts Macarthuri properly planted and grown would, when thirty years old, be worth £I,OOO on the stumps, while long before that the thinnings would have paid working expenses. Mr. Reynolds’ Eucalypts arc of this same variety intermixed with stringy bark, some of the trees have reached a girth of 8-ft. to 10-ft. and a height of 100-ft. PINUS INSIGNIS A GOOD BUILDING MATERIAL Among the soft wood timbers the pinus radiata (or insignis) is everywhere showing equally astonishing results, and there are now being milled and sawn such quantities of this timber as are quite unknown within the same area in the cultivated forests of Europe. Of this timber in Appendix 15 of the Forestry Commission’s report, Mr. W. L. C. Williams writes:— note from your remarks that you are in favour of planting large areas of pinus insignis. Well, if the Commission comes to no other conclusion, and the Forestry Department carry your recommendation out, you will have conferred an inestimable boon on the country.” Writing from Culver den Mr. Davison says:- “If I had to rebuild my own house, I would use insignis for scantling, weatherboards, and flooring in preference to rimu, as I believe it to be immune from the borer.” This after having used it for outbuildings several years before. From Barr Hill, Mr. Ronald Opie writes: — this district there are some 400 acres of pinus insignis forest, and an average yield per acre would be more than 190,000 superficial feet.” It is well known that quick returns and large yields can be obtained from Douglas fir, from Corsican pine, from pinus ponderosa, or heavy pine, as well as others of the soft-wood trees, and there is every reason for supposing that from climatic and general atmospheric conditions New Zealand is specially favourable for the growth of commercially valuable timbers. CONCLUSION There seems to be a lingering hope with some of our people that our native timber trees may yet be found profitable for reproduction, but close examination goes to show that the weight of compound interest will be too great a burden for the re-growth to bear. In the one instance in the Auckland domain where an assortment of native trees was put down for the express purpose of serving as a test of that order, the results to-day are not encouraging. Reporting on these trees in 1887 to the New Zealand Institute, Mr. Baber, a Avell known civil engineer of that time said, that by the time the, trees were fifty years old they would afford reliable data on which to form opinions as to the prospects of growing kauri at a profit, and as the trees were transplanted to their present positions in 1865 they arc now well over the fifty years spoken of, and

after a close examination of them within the past few days, in company with an Auckland sawmiller he had no hesitation in saying that no one of them has any market value at present, nor any prospect of such for very many years to come. Many other illustrations and arguments could be brought forward to show how important, and urgent is the provision for a secured timber supply, such for instance as the disastrous consequences which would ensue from dependence on over-seas supplies in time of war; but I hope I have now shown the need for increased interest, and for more active work on the part of business men in general towards the furtherance of a National scheme of Afforestation which shall be Avorthv of the name. S. I. CLARKE.