SELWYN PLANTATIONS BOARD.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15860, 27 March 1917, Page 2

SELWYN PLANTATIONS BOARD.

MONTHLY MEETING. A meeting ol tEe Selwyn' Plantations Board wsa held yesterday. Present —Messrs W. A. Skinner (chairman), K. Wilson, G.i Bedford, W. T. Popple, E. M.: Morten, S. A. Staples, R. Nairn, J. Starry, G. Witty, M.P., and Geo.. Scott. The financial statement showed the receipts for the past month to have been £1170 18s 4d, and the expenditure £109 12a Id, leaving a 1 credit balance of £1061 6s"3d; The report was adopted, and accounts for £108 16s Id were passed for payment.' The overseer's report stated that Bince work had been resumed after harvesting, oprationa . had consisted .mostly of repairing fenoee that had been damaged by the reccnt fires-at Banksido. At present the staff was busily engaged in grubbing wattles, which, were now growing very thick in ■ plac-es. Regarding tree planting for the coming season, the overseer reported that on part Reserve 37010 there were 59,138 pits left for this year's planting, which, with the failures in 1915 and 1916, leaves a total to be planted of 83,138. Since the beginning of the year, 70,000" feet of timber had been milled at Hororr.ta, and up to the date of the last tally, the total amounted to 237,000 feet. Since, the ,last meeting the overseer had received the sum of £31 2s 4d for - the of stakes, timber, and firewood. The report was adopted. Mr Staples submitted a report of the work of the sub-committee set up to consider tenders accepted for cutting and disposing of trees on burned reserves at Bank aide and Duneandel, and on the recommendation of the sub-committee, it was dcided to accept the offer of G. McClatchie and Co. for the purchase of the firewood; Some discussion took place on . the report of • the sub-committee, and 'Mr Witty .pointed out that the plantations had been very badly burned, and it had been thought better to plant the entire plantations anew, instead of leaving them as unsightly ae they were at present. In coming to that decision, {he subcommittee had had no thought of securing revenue from firewood, but only of the best interests of the Board.,

The report was adopted, and the action of the - committee approved. It was resolved to grant the Board's employees an increase of la per day for iie period of the war. . . . •

Mr S. A. Staples and Mr" G. Witty, M.P., reported that th© sub-committee Get up for tfu> purpose had inspected the ' damaged plantations, and had found the trees very badly burned, and rt had decided' that it would be in the best interests of the Board to cut all the damaged trees. It would be better, /they pointed out, to Teplant the planations rather than leave them in their present unsightly and useless (from a shelter point of view) condition.