Forestry Department.

Progress, Volume XVI, Issue 5, 1 January 1921, Page 112

Forestry Department.

A distinct forward move in the organisation of the Forestry Department has now been made by the calling for applications for several important positions in the Department. Applications closed on loth January, and the positions to be filled are Conservators of Forests for Southland, CanterburyOtago, and Rotorua; also Westland and Auckland Districts; an Assistant Land Surveyor; a Special Officer for Head Office versed in forest exploitation from the stump to the consumer; an Engineer in Forest Products and Forest Rangers for Wellington, Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington (B Class), Nelson, Westland, Canterbury-Otago, and Southland. It will thus be seen that the active organisation and activities of the Forestry Department are about to be brought into effect, and as the activities will very largely affect the sawmilling industry in the future it is to be hoped that the men chosen for these positions will have a thorough knowledge of the industry, and if they have such knowledge there will surely be harmony between the Department and the industry, and such harmony is certainly to be desired. * * * The following paragraph from the Post of 17th December last bears also on matters pertaining to the Forestry Department:— “ Sawmillers complain that they are hampered in their arrangements for future operations and commitments, owing to the fact that the Commissioner of State Forests has not defined his policy as to timber sales in regard to large areas (including 1,600,000 acres on the West Coast),- which have been dedicated State forests. The millers and persons financially interested state that they are anxious to know what policy the Government intends to adopt.” It is probable that the Department is awaiting completion of organisation and the appointment of principal officers before making a general statement of policy. There is to be a meeting of the Executive of the Sawmillers’ Federation during January, and it is expected that this matter will be dealt with then and ’ a statement of policy obtained from the Commissioner of Forests,. Sir Francis Bell. ■&* ■jfc A brief message has been received from Mr. W. T. Irvine from Sydney, to the effect that he is feeling a gradual improvement in health, but that the heat in Sydney was very great, and that he was shortly moving further afield, probably to Adelaide and Fremantle,