DOMINION FORESTS

NEW DIRECTOR'S PROPOSALS

REVENUE-PRODUCING SCHEME.

Th« first report of the new Director of Forestry (Captain L. Macintosh Ellis) goes most thoroughly into the present condition of New Zealand's forests and] the needs of the future, and is copiously illustrated with maps, graphs, and 1 diagrams. Captain Ellis says ttoa.t in formulating a progressive forest progiamnie for New Zealand-, he has paid! due consideration to the policies and methods that have been successful in other countries similarly placed, but adds that the policy proposed in his report for New Zealand is based on an independent and original consideration of New Zealand's problems. It is not borrowed from somewhere else, in the hope that it will fit in. but is essentially ai plan developed 1 from and on the present and. future needs of the country. In particular the writer emphasises the con--1 clusione expressed; in the following summary :— (1) New Zealand's visible supply of timber is estimated to be „ between 35 and 60 thousand million superficial feet. The annual national consumption within a, generation will probably be one thousand million feet. Id the interest of national prosperity every acre of forest on absolute forest soils should be placod on a sustained yield basis. (2) The world's visible supply of wood useful in the arts is limited—New Zealand's timber supply problem must be solved by action in New Zealand. (3) A definite policy is recommended by which continuity of action and * stable and competent management may be secured for a period of years. The following are proposed :—(a) A simple, effective Forest Act; (b) a forest service; (c) a forest development fund for forest development and demarcation; (d) tba administration and management of all the Crown forests and forest lands by the forest service; (c) a progressive timber sale policy; (f) adequate facilities for technical education in New Zealand*; (g) State co-operation in private treegrowing by various means, such as equitable taxation, forest fire insurance, forest fire protection, etc.; (h) the administration and management of all scenic reserves, national porks, forest reserves, forested national and educational endowments, forested Native lands, by the forest service; (i) a forests products laboratory and bureau of forest research; (j) survey and inventory of tha forests, forest resources and soils of the Dominion; (k) an economic 1 survey of the timber industry and of the timberusing industries; (1) the administration and protection of the fish, bird, and game resources by the forest service. Upon these proposals Captain Ellis claims there may be built a forest policy that should ensure the permanent ajid adequate supply of timber for New Zealand. Moi'eover, the adoption of the principles involved should result in immediate increased forest revenue to tha State, instead of increasing the drain on the public treasury, for, to his mind, there is abundant evidence that the cost of operation should constitute a smaller and smaller percentage of the revenues yielded by the forest service.