REMEMBER THE TREES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 150, 28 June 1933, Page 6

REMEMBER THE TREES.

This country merits less than it did the suggestion that it should includc in its coat of arms an axe and a box of matches to symbolise the ruthlessness of its forest destruction, but it is not Sufficiently mindful of its duty in this respect to be allowed to forget this thrust. In these days of economic pressure and uncertainty the claims of forestry are in danger of receding again into tho background, and the lecture that the late Director of Forestry gave to the Institute this week is a reminder' of their importance. Mr. E. Phillips Turner speaks with special authority on th:s subject. It is doubtful if there is his equal in both comprehensive and detailed knowledge of New Zealand forests; with pardonable poetic exaggeration he may be said to know every tree in the estate. His lecture was an admirable summary, nowhere bettered we should say, of New Zealand's sins of commission and omission and what should be done to preserve and improve this national asset. Mr. Turner stands for a policy of preservation, afforestation and experiment. Tie believes that all care should be taken of existing native forests, to which end he would extend the control of the State, and he would combine this with the cultivation of exotics, in Which so much' has already been done. The unexpected possibilities of our forests are illustrated in the demand that has arisen in England for our beecli-wood, hitherto this has generally been regarded as of little value. The direct economic value of trees, however, great though it is, constitutes only half the case, for a complete forestry policy. . Destroy your trees, and rivers and soil suffer. What Mr. Turner says about the preservation of the remote ranges at the back of Ruapehu should be noted. These regulate a large part, of the flow of water to Taupo, and that lake feeds the Waikato River, which furnishes most of the province's electric power, and may some day be used as a sourec of the city's water supply. How many people, looking at these -ranges from a distance, have thought of their economic value? Yet these and other valuable forests are endangered by the ordinary l'isk of fire and by depredations of animals, including deer. Tho cost of unwise introduction of animals promises to be indefinitely long and deplorably heavy.