FULLY APPROVED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 259, 1 November 1928, Page 19

FULLY APPROVED.

HEW ZEALAND FORESTRY.

JSHPIRE DELEGATES' TOUB.

DR. COCKAYNE'S IMPRESSIONS

All who met the delegates to the

British Empire Forestry Conference

lien they were travelling in New Zeamust lave felt profoundly satisfied ,rith their conclusions regarding New gland's forestry, said Dr. L. Cockayne, JUS., in an interview in Wellington. The delegates," said Dr. Cockayne, "gaw the vast man-made forests of the tolcanic plateau where ground worthless for agriculture is now covered with what they considered the finest growth of exotic trees they had ever seen. This planting is greater than what has been done in Australia and South Africa taken together, and tho delegates noted not only the rapid growth of the trees, but their comparative immunity from disease of all kinds—immunity they had hardly expected they would see. Their one criticism, nnd it is no new criticism for foresters in New Zealand, was that oertain of the stands of trees badly required thinning, and though they well knew that such thinning was very expansive in a country where you could not sell the thinnings, several declared that it would not pay not to thin. This advice should certainly go a long way with Mr. Hawken, the Commissioner of State Forests, and doubtless he will arrange that accurate observations be carried out that will enable knowledge to be gained as to whether thinning will be profitable or the contrary. "It must be gratifying to all New Zealanders," added Dr. Cockayne, "to know how greatly New Zealand forestry is approved by those whose prerogative it is to speak with absolute authority on the subject, and there should be little difficulty in persuading, if persuasion is required, the Minister to see that forestry is pursued with still greater vigour in New Zealand than it has been in the past. In this regard the methods inaugurated during the regime of Mr. Hawken, of reducing the cost of planting to what appears an absurdly low figure, should make his term of office as a Minister historical in the history of forestry in the British Empire. This new knowledge should enable New Zealand not only to supply her own needs for timber in the future, but should make her a country from which softwood timber should be exported to Australia, and probably further afield. "Although the tour of the delegates throughout New Zealand has cost a considerable amount, the prominence with which New Zealand forestry will be brought before the Empire, and also before the people of the Dominion, who, I am happy to say, are now developing a strong forestry oenscience, ensures that the money las been expended to the very fullest advantage."