HEARTH AND HOME.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18347, 2 April 1925, Page 5

HEARTH AND HOME.

IMPORTANCE OF FORESTS.

APPROACHING TIMBER

FAMINE

President Roosevelt, speaking in IByy. said: ''Our consumption of timber is three times the annual increase ol our forests: we inherited vast nsvtural reserves, but more than Tialf our original forests are now gone."

These American fir and cedar iorest-s were so vast, timber was so abundant anil seemed so inexhaustible, that hundreds ut square ruiles were burned over in a single season and immense quantities ot t-lie line.st timber in the world either totally consumed or rendered valueless, au liliiszlisli paper. Jn Canada during tne last live years forest lues have uesi roved ten million acres of timber, fl is c.stiinuted that in ihi ity years, at the present rate of depletion, the virgin forests of Canada and the "United States will be exhausted.

In Sweden the actual annual cutting is estimated to exceed the growth by '2OO million cubic feet; half their original forests are gone.

In Spain the forest area is now only 14 per cent, of the entire land area, yet at the time of the Human Republic it was covered with forests; the Romans built their ships there. In France, Belgium, Italy, and Gteece SO to 90 per cent, of the original forests have been destroyed] and, taking the whole of Europe, only about one-third of the original forests now remain.

Groat Britain imports 9o per cent, of her timber supplies, at a cost of about 100 millions a year; only L'O per cent, ol' this comes from our own Colonies. Since the Great "War. 40.000 acres have been planted in the United-King-dom. but it takes about 20 years before trees are large enough to cut for fencing or pit-props, -and about oO years before trees are large enough for general eornmertinl use.

11l liofc countries where there are heavy falls of Tain followed by periods of prolonged drought the preservation of trees is of great ■imnortanre. Forests are natural reservoirs of moisture: tliey art as sponges, stoiing the rainfall and yielding up gradually to the streams a constant supply of water. National Welfare. National welfare and individual comfort is. to a largo extent, dependent upon tho maintenance pf sufficient supplies of wood; Imfc the permanence of these supplies did not in the past trouble either nations .or individuals. When wc consider the present climatic and other conditions of countries in all parts of tho world and contrast these conditions with what prevailed in the past, we cannot but see that the preservation of forests and the reafforestation of denuded areas is, in some cases, a matter of vital importance. In the past tho influence of forests on climate was not understood. The apparent great excess of timber beyond that required for immediate use led to tho clearing of vast tracts without yielding any return. Mo attempt was made at reafforestation, and no thought was given to the probable requirements of the future, either lor building, manufactures, or fuel. The downfall of Babylon, JCineveh, Thebes, Memphis, Carthage, Tyre, and Sidou was largely due to tho destruction of the surrounding forests. Wells and water-courses dried up, agriculture, upoil which the people mainly depended, became impossible as the country round became an arid waste, and desolation brooded over these once mighty cities as the advancing sand of the surrounding deserts buried them from sight. When Jonah entered Nineveh, crying "Yet 40 days and Nineveh .shall be overthrown," there was time for repentance; but when, through the destruction of their forests, famine sounded her clarion at the gate, it was the trumpet blast of doom that startled the citizens into the wakefulness of despair. little did Belshazzar think at his midnight banquet in Babylon, when the mysterious hand traced his doom upon the wall and the shouts of the soldiers of Darius were heard without, that the lean and "sinister figure of drought would be advancing upon the city to write "khabod" upon tho very stones of his palace. Those who feel the responsibilities of the present with regard to the future have for years watched with considerable anxiety the wasting of timber aud the exhaustion of one forest region after another, and, thinking of the dawn of a to-morrow, look forward with, misgiving to the conditions that must of necessity exist jn another generation, when a timber famine will wait at our gates, a mendicant will not be refused.

CHAIR OF ARCHITECTURE. PROFESSOR KNIGHT ARRIVES. (special to "ihi PSIIS.") AUCKLAND, April 1. Professor C. R- Knight, who will fill the new Chair of Architecture at Auckland University and who way selected out of a large number of applicants for tho position, arrived at Auckland by the Marania to-day. Ho is accompanied bv Mrs Knight and child. ' Professor Knight laughingly denied bavin" any particular plans tor teaching new architecture Zealand. (Every town, he pointed out, had .to be judged, from an architectural pom g of view", W local conditions, ,md a stranger could not make up lus nund •ihout"it until he had made a comprehensivc ui.ealoH The. location, trade and lay-out all had their influences on HSed in England, France and ' \meriea, Professor Knight is a vomvr •Xnstraliau whoso work is his hobbj. He that the most string tbmg "•iv->tiitecture in .New i ork <•»> the present time is the development of flit Tlie modern tendency is all for the construction of vast aporthouses and there as more ot tin* ffi other kind of building gomg on in America's greatest cily. The majority of people seem to have grown tired of housekeeping and go in !or self-contained flats, which do. suvay with a lot of trouble, including the servant problem. On the other Jiaiut, of course, there are many people who jmi Ijavc a home of their own, with a suburban plot or garden at any price. The flat tendency in London is also .enormously. "For inyseli," taid Professor Knight. "I would pre- 1 t'er a small home, but in New York you would have to go from 15 to 20 miles out to get one. Flats Appeal to the neoplo in New York, too, because of i (ho variable climate, lu summer it is .very hot and in winter very cold. In i the' hot weather the people can close up itheir flats and run off to the se.v tide or the country." I I Describing a dispute «t Ckrkenwell; County Court as "a storm in a tea- j cup. ' Judge Parfitt a'dded: ' : Tliu sedt-: ul en't at the bottom is coste."