TIMBER SUPPLIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 305, 26 December 1930, Page 8

TIMBER SUPPLIES.

PROVISION FOR FUTURE.

DOMINION LEADS.

TREE PLANTING DURING YEAR.

(By Telegraph.—-Own Correspondent.) ■'■■'- WELLINGTON, this day. The planting of trees to supply timber for the future was actively pursued in New Zealand during the' 1930 % season. Figures . supplied to.' the Commissioner of' State Forests'(Hon.-E. A.' Ransom) by the director, of forestry (Mr. E. Phillips Turner), showed that .in this, connection the Dominion leads the British* Empire. A.total of 53,852 acres were planted with 35,900,000 trees. The work was distributed- as .follows:—Auckland region, 9574 acres; Rotorua, 29,094; Wellington, 2566; Nelson, 4100; Canterbury, 5691; Southland, 2726. The principal species of tree planted were pinus ponderosa, pinus radiata, pinus laricio, Douglas fir or Oregon pine and Calif ornian redwood Assistance to Unemployed. During the planting season a total of 1700 workers was engaged and the maximum number employed at any one time was approximately 1400. The average weekly number of. employees was 1180, I .'of which 70 per cent were drawn from the ranks of the unemployed. The total net area of . State plantations now amounts to 307,500 acres. This exceeds considerably the area which has been . ; , afforested by any other British Dominion. '> Special' reference is made in another ''"' report' to the commissioner upon the 'valuer of pinus-. radiata, the planting of 'which-was criticised \>J members of N Parliament last season. Mr. Turner Joints but that in the Australian States &e .tree- chiefly planted- by the Forestry Departments- has been pinus radiata. In. South' Africa, where afforestation is car-; ried out on ai large scale, pinus radiata has been planted more than any other eoftwood'tree except fte V™*?™^In Chile, it has aleobeen^sed^arge^ for afforestation purposes.; It fore stated'to be unlikely that all.these were not foresters satisfied of,its high •, value. - ""' ' '' ';>,:■ , . ■',',.,

Owing to the cheapness of the seed, the ease with which the young plants could be raised and planted out, and the hardness and general suitability, of the tree for a variety of soils and sites, forests of pinus radiata could be established more cheaply than those of any other softwood tree. Owing to the short rotation required, namely, 25 to 30 years, according to the purpose for which the wood was to be used, and the fact that the tree yielded a larger volume of timber an acre than any other softwood tree, the final crops could be produced at a far lower accumulated cost. Superior-Timbers. . "In forming their opinions as to the value of the timber of this tree'in New Zealand critics have been influenced solely; by their experience with timber which has been obtained from trees grown in narrow lands as breakwinda," Mr. Turner says. "The timber from any soft • woods so grown is full of large knots. It is of low specific gravity; of comparatively lo w strength, and of use only for. inferior purposes. . v: .v "With pinus radiata grown under forestry conditions and management, however, the timber is an altogether superior product. The annual rings are narrow and regular, the strength is greater and knots are small or absent. As regards strength) tests carried out in South Africa prove the timber of pinus radiata to be about the same as arti-ficially-grown Canary Island pine' timber, which is one of the strongest softwoods in South Africa and Australia. "The value of pinus radiata timber is shown by the fact. that-untreated it is satisfactorily used for the same purposes as Baltic pine in parte of New Zealand. Also it has been and is, now being satisfactorily used for house building,: and, with antiseptic treatment, it is essentially made as durable as totara. "In the future, in addition to the very large amount of wood required for building and packing, the' manufacture of paper, artificial silk, acetone, etc., an immense quantity of ; wood will be required for the disintegrating process by which fabricated wood materials are now being made and used as a substitute for sawn boards. Pinus radiata will yield a far greater volifme of wood suitable for cellulose, and at less cost, than will any other softwood in the same time. The foregoing amply justifies the planting of pinus radiata, but it should at the same time be.remembered that the .State Forest Service's main .planting/is of Western yellow pine, Corsican pine, Douglas fir and Californian redwood, of the merits of, which even -the man in -the street must be aware."