Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1928. EMPIRE FORESTRY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 80, 14 January 1928, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1928. EMPIRE FORESTRY.

The Empire conference on afforestation, which it is proposed to hold in Canberra, this year, without doubt will be one of the most important gatherings in connection with the development of the Empire's resources. In a lecture, Professor H. H. Corbin (professor of Forestry at Auckland University College) showed that forestry offers almost boundless scope for research, which will probably go on increasingly as long as man has need* of timber. The world's forests, he explained, do not really occupy any large part of the total land surface. In Africa, for example, they are very restricted. Even then, of the area classed as forests by the geographers, very little contains good timber of merchantable size. Tropical forests contain immense masses of .vegetation, but they are but poor timber producers. It is estimated by one authority that supplies of timber from the world's virgin forests will be exhausted by 1950 and meanwhile vast areas were being destroyed by fire. In the United States 29,000,00(0 acres of forest were burned in 1924. The imminence of a world-famine in soft woods was the text of an address to the forestry subsection of the British Association by Sir Peter Clutterbuck. He said France and Germany had developed a strong forest consciousness, realising that timber was next in importance to food and clothing among the prime necessaries of life. The state of affairs in the British Empire and the United States was different. They were almost defenceless against the coming famine. Some authorities thought that exhaustion of the supplies would be reached in 25 years. Canada, with certainly no more virgin forests left than would last for that period, was already sending 83 per cent, of her annual production to the United States. The outlook as regards the British Empire is therefore not reassuring, and some remedial measures are necessary. The Forestry Commission has already accomplished a great deal of work in Great Britain, and generally steps are being taken to start or to improve forest management on scientific lines in most parts of the Empire. A strong forest consciousness should be developed, so that it should be recognised that forests are of primary importance to the Empire. Sir Peter Clutterbuck said there were distinct signs of a beginning; of such a consciousne'ss in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In each of these dominions the planting of conifers was taking place, but none of them was likely to have a surplus for export. From the Himalayas, in his opinion, nothing was to be hoped, as the cost of transport would always be an obstacle, and India would ultimately require for herself all she could grow. Canada wasi fast using up her virgin forests, and doing little or nothing to replace the sources of supply. The object of the proposed conference is to co-ordinate measures so that the problem of conserving and maintaining the supply will be approached in the manner most promising; of success.