Vanishing Forests.

Progress, Volume XIV, Issue 8, 1 April 1919, Page 483

Vanishing Forests.

Prohibition of Export Suggested. Mr S. J. Harbutt, of Auckland at the Industrial Corporation's Conference, read a paper by Mr S. I. Clarke on "Commercial Timbers." The paper urged that steps should be taken to extend the supplies of timber in the Dominion, and that public opinion should be influenced in favour of afforestation. It was unwise to depend on supplies from overseas. Individual effort could be encouraged, but an adequate supply of timber could be assured by only State control. For construction purposes New Zealand timbers could be found in payable quantities. Those fit for outside and inside work could be counted on the fingers of one hand, and these were vanishing at a rate that should cause serious alarm. An equal number of exotics were growing in this country that gave much better promise than the natives of rapidity of growth, volume of returns, lightness, and ease in working, with consequent cheapness of working and transit, strength and durability. Although the natural forests should be preserved as far as possible, the main hope was in a properly equipped and well managed system of cultivated forests. New Zealand must manage her own timber business in a way suited to her own conditions of life and trade.

Mr Stevenson, Dunedin, said that it was time New Zealand put her house in order as far as timber was concerned. The export of all timber should be stopped, and experiments should be made to show if the soft timbers might be used for pulp. Extensive afforestation should be taken in hand at once. Mr H. Mainland, "Wellington, said that a commission was supplying information on the subject to the Board of Trade. The basis of the, remedy was to stop export. The supply would never be conserved as long as vessels were allowed to take quantities of timber to Australia. Timber that could be bought a few years ago for 24s now cost £2 10s. Mr J. Black, Christchurch, said that an export duty might be imposed to help local industries. He would not favour absolute prohibition of export. Mr Harbutt said that a contract had been .signed for the supply of £5,000,000 worth of timber, from

the West Coast to Australia. The present policy would lead to the most disastrous famine New Zealand ever had experienced. Every organisation in the Dominion should support the Government in a scheme of afforestation, but it must be on commercial lines. In Otago there were millions of acres that could be replanted. He wondered if the conntry's gains from tens of thousands of cleared and grassed land in the Wairarapa was equivalent to the gain it would have had if the forest was left standing. The country was galloping to the bad at an alarming rate.

Messrs Harbutt, Mainland, and Black were appointed a committee to go into the question and frame a remit for the conference to submit to the Government.