SAVED FROM THE AXE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 250, 22 October 1928, Page 5

SAVED FROM THE AXE.

DOMINION'S FINE FOREST RESERVES.

admired bt lord curioi.

HINTS ON EXOTIC PLANTATIONS.

"We have found that a very great deal is being done in New Zealand for the advancement of afforestation," Lord Clinton said to-day in an interview with a representative of the "Auckland Star." The chairman of the British Forestry Commission paid a visit to New Zealand 40 years ago while on his way to Australia. He has been greatly impressed by the progress which has been made since then in developing the resources of this Dominion.

"The memt>ers of the commission," said Lord Clinton, "are especially impressed with the wonderful amount of tree planting which has been carried out. What is urgently required now is cultivation work, and we hope that this will be undertaken with the thoroughness which we have noted in other parts of the Empire." He pointed out that most of the work done In New Zealand had been mainly experimental, but enough had been done to show that great good would result.

Speaking of what he had seen is New Zealand, Lord Clinton said he had been struck with the qualities of tree growth in this country. The growth here was greater than it was with similar trees in Britain. Here the exotics in the Government plantations consisted mostly of European larch, ponderosa, insignis and Douglas, these last three coming from the Pacific seaboard of North America.

Referring to the native trees of New Zealand, Lord Clinton expressed tremendous admiration for the kauri. He was glad to see that remarkable specimens were being conserved for scenic purposes. As a matter of fact lie and the members of the commission had been much struck in different parts of the Dominion at the wise manner in which forest areas were being conserved for the benefit of posterity. They had found, said the visitor, beautiful scenic reserves set apart in a most liberal manner, showing that the people of this Dominion appreciated their unique forests, not merely regarding them as means of making money by chopping down the trees, but as things of beauty to be preserved for succeeding generations.