NEGLECTED FORESTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 248, 19 October 1928, Page 7

NEGLECTED FORESTS.

COMMENT BY INDIAN

DELEGATE.

NEED FOR FIRE PROTECTION.

"We have been in New Zealand only a very short time and have naturally seen things rather superficially, but are extremely impressed with your plantations," said Mr. B. D. Richmond, chief conservator of forests, Madras, who heads the Indian delegation. "It has been a wonderful feat to get that enormous area planted at Botorua, but it would have been much better if less area had been planted and more attention been paid to the trees at the completion of planting. TjbV of thinning the plantations must result," he added, "in less timber of worse quality than would be the case if they, had been looked after properly." The Forestry Office of the Dominion wae perfectly aware of this, and it appeared to be a matter of inability to secure the necessary finance to carry out the work.

He, like the remainder of the delegates, was much impressed with the natural forests on the West Coast of the South Island, which grow on land which could only be suitable for forestry purposes and would never be made payable for agriculture. These forests, however, appeared to be neglected, the difficulty being that the Department had not the staff to attend to everything. It seemed to be felt that the indigenous forests would hardly repay for being looked after owing to slackness of growth, but it must be remembered that forests given rational treatment would grow faster than those left completely to nature. It had been the experience of India that it was possible to considerably reduce the rotation of crops of teak by systematic management. The principle of sustained yields was a thing that should be perpetually borne in mind, while attention should be given to fire prevention in forest areas, particularly on land that would never be fit for cultivation, and would, if denuded, of growth, cause erosion on the hilly slopes and silting no of the rivers.