Tree Planting.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17461, 23 May 1922, Page 6

Tree Planting.

®hs" awakening of public interest jp W&tisra spflpected wjth afforestation in New Zealand will rib doubt lead to many more people residing the report, printed §» .apotfjerpage, of .the Selwyn Plantation Board's operations for the pasfc year than would have been the case two or three years ago. The report indicates th»t, despite the handicap Jm, Pose(J by the abnormally ligjit raipfgll experienced in tho last t\rQ months of lasfg} year, the effects, which were 900enfasted by the high winds, the has had, pn the whole, a successful yew, wd has dope a good depl of useful work. The gpegtipp raised by Mr Wl E. Popple, during the discusr fiios «# iiw report, as to wither the Boavd should not itiake preparations oq a large scafc tq plant better timber than pinys jpmgpis, 19 on© that warranted tl» consideration it deceived. The superintendent's report hud shown thpt 42Q,Q00 put -pf the 5£0,000 seedlings in the'. Board's nursery, apt} 45Q',00Q out of "tht 453,000 trees that* were "lined "o«ti".the*©, were pipus insignia, wbilo Of tb» 131,650 trees Bept out during the ysair, for planting in various reserves, 101 jSieOwerooftlui «bb» variety. Now,

pinus insiggjs has jf? uses. I* hji* been of • great service in providing shelter belts all over the plains, and latterly in aupplying an appreciable, quantity of firewood for the city, while here and there it has been utilised for farm buildings. But it is not a firstclass timber tree; no one would build a house of it if he could get any better material. Therefore Sir Popple's suggestion that an undue quantity oi pinus insignis was being grown by the Board was timely, especially as 1 he pointed out that local bodies and private rndividuals were following phe Board's lead, and the result would be that in fifty years Canterbury wpuld have enorrnous quantities of secondclass timber, and JUple of apy other kind. That was not the example set by several of the pioneer settlers whose faith in the ability of Canterbury land to ijjtiv fousfc trees of the best kinds is shown to-day by splendid plantations in various parts of the old Selwyn County, and still further afield. Mr Popple's suggestion that the Poard should do better than its proposal to plant this year five acres of the Benmore reserves, is one to which the members were evidently sympathetic. The Beninpre country has proved * ts ca P ac_ ity tp grow excellent timber; indeed, as Mr Popple there is ample evidence that this is equally true of a great deal of the land on the fppthills and in the valjeys. Pinus, insignis may be, at? the superintendent said, a more profitable prpposipign phan Qregon p}ne, but the Plantation Board is not, as we understand its objects, in existence as a money-making concern. It is working for posterity, and in the long run the cultivation of good timber wjll probably pay much better than the planting of millions of pinus insignis.