New Zealand Pine.

Progress, Volume XV, Issue 11, 1 July 1920, Page 843

New Zealand Pine.

The Queensland Minister for Lands (Mr. J. H. Coyne) announced recently that the Victorian Farmers' Union had placed before him the following resolution : "That in view of the expressed intention of the New Zealand Government to prohibit the exportation of white pine, this Conference directs the attention of the authorities to the necessity of planting large areas in New South Wales and Queensland, with hoop pine as a substitute, and that the Forestry Department be approached to preserve areas of mountain ash and any other native timber that is suitable for butter boxes. In doing so, the Secretary of the Union urged upon the Queensland Government the necessity for taking steps to further the object in view.

Mr. Coyne pointed out that this resolution strikingly confirms the declaration of the Queensland Director of Forests in his annual report for 1918, that "the 25.000.000 super, feet of timber annually required by the Australian dairying industry for butter boxes, must come chiefly from Queensland. So also the several million feet of pine used in the local manufacture of wooden matches."

"The inter-dependence of dairying and forestry," said Mr. Coyne, "is permanent. We can dispense with neither. The chief difficulty is to strike a balance. So far too great a proportion of our restricted pine lands has been alienated, and the Forest Service is facing the dismaying problem of making good from its limited resources the enormous deficiency that must follow upon the completion of the passing of the alienate"! areas furnishing at present two-thirds of the annual softwood cut of the State. The Forest Service this vear is propagating a million hoop pine plants. This is a mere handful as compared with the requisite output, but suitable planting sites are not alwavs available owing to heavy excisions in the past."

Tn connection with paper-making the Western Australian Forestry expert says: What is needed is a properly equipped paper making laboratory established in a Forest Products Laboratory. For first trials to make a selection of the many materials available, small autoclaves, grinders, beaters and a small machine would be required. When a preliminary survey has resulted in selecting a few most promising sources of suitable pulp, larger size plant would be required to demonstrate possibilities on a semi-commercial scale. In addition, a paper chemist and an expert paper-maker would be of great assistance and save much time and expense. Besides the larger question of newsprint, the supply of books, writing, wrapping arid numerous other grades of naner from chemical renins needs investigation. Possiblv a use for some of the enormous timber waste in Australia would follow this investigation.