AFFORESTATION AT HANMER.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 305, 21 December 1912, Page 11

AFFORESTATION AT HANMER.

TREES |BY THE MUXION. (By Telei*aph.-(*wn Correspondent.) cimiSTCHURCH, this day. Since thef commencement of afforestation operations at Hanmer Springs, where prison laboi ir is largely employed, great I advantages have accrued and that in niore c-an one d: Irection. Not only has an area of 2,700 ac res been planted with millions of trees wh, ich will ha.ye considerable com-1 mercial va] ue as time goes on, but the! bulk of the% work of planting and so on j has been dfone by men drafted from the prisons ofi the Dominion. The less ro-1 stricted lijfe at the prison camp, the work ' in the opein air, and tho greater comfort I of the life! generally have had a splendid J influence o»i the men, and resulted in many of them SRoing to the outside world to become docent citizens. An area of about 40 acres is devoted to the nursem - . and hero millions of seedling I trees are^being raised. Thesp include! Oregon piniy, larch, pinus ponderosa, and pines from! Austria and elsewhere. Between two fcuid three willions of seedlings have been \ilanted out in rows, and iv ' time they vifill be transplanted out on the plantation. 1 The nursery is kept in beautifnl order, land presents a most attractive appearance, j Alongside Ithe nursery are grown trees planted wheifi the camp was first started some seven yea-rs ago. Alread the laroh trees are fully 12 feet high, and they tire growing very! rapidly. Nearly all figures I in connectionlwith the work run into millions. Abouß 5.000,000 trees have been planted out, «.he rerord for any one year being 1,200*.0W0. Last year the trees | planted totalled t>65.000. and no fewer j than 234.57.5U were needed to replace ] blanks in rowfe caused by trees dying or being fiestroyejd. The area planted last year was 268 I acres. From any hilltop the plantation Imakes s splendid eight indeed. As the vfjeUor comes round the cutting on his vraj| to Hanmer Sprinee it can be sp-en across/the plain, its vivid prppn standing out inf great contrast against the brown backgroilind of the hills.