STATE FORESTS

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19670, 13 July 1929, Page 9

STATE FORESTS

PLANTING AHEAD OF SCHEDULE. MINISTER LOOKS TO THE FUTURE. [THE PRESS SpecUl Serrie*.} WELLINGTON, July 12. As the present planting programme of the State Forest Service will be completed four years ahead of schedule, the Commissioner of State Forests, the Hon. Mr Taverner, informed the House of Representatives to-day that he would shortly be placing before Cabinet recommendations for the inauguration of a ten-year planting programme, providing for the annual establishment of an area very much lower than at present.

The Minister explained that the Service was at present working to a programme of establishing 300,000 acres by 1935, but owing to improved methods, etc., and the ability of afforestation work to absorb a considerable number of men in the months when unemployment was troublesome, planting was so far ahead that at the conclusion of the present season the area established would approximate 238,000 acres. At the current rate of progress the objective of 300,000 acres was expected to be reached by 1931. The most reliable expert estimate available indicated that New Zealand native timber would be practically exhausted by 1965, when the total timber requirements for the Dominion would be about 700.000.000 board feet per annum. Of this quantity State plantations were estimated to produce 450,000,000 feet per annum, local body and private olantations 150.000.000 feet, indigenous forests 50,000.000 feet, and importations (mainly hardwoods) 50.000.000 feet. It was further estimated that the State plantation yield referred to would come from the 30U,000 acres to be planted by 1931. After emphasising that it would be the Government's policy not to plant trees on land where wool could be grown, the Minister pointed out that there were still Eome millions of acres which could not be used for any form of farming, and much of it could, by being used for afforestation, be made both productive and capable of carrying a large population, in addition to other advantages. Furthermore, there was every reason to expect that surplus softwood timbers could in future advantageously be disposed of for th« production of paper and other materials made from wood pulp. And. again, the peculiar suitability of afforestation as a means of absorbing surplus labour during the winter must not be lost sight of. The Minister explained that careful consideration of these and other factors had enabled him to reach conclusions which he intended to express shortly in recommendations to Cabinet regarding the future policy of the service. "I am not at the moment in a position to go into those proposals," Mr Taverner added, "but I m2y say my I recommendations will be in the direc- ! tion of laying down a ten-year planting ' programme, commencing from the date of attainment of the present objective of 200.000 acres, and providing for the annual establishment of an area very much lower than at present. It must not be assumed that if these proposals are adopted the activity of the Department as a whole will be in any way lessened, for there is a wide, and as vet, practically untouched field of work in the conservation and management of our native forests. I expect that the result of my proposals, if adopted, would be that whereas the Department'» main activity at present lies _ in the establishment of exotic plantations, its attention, after the completion of its present planting programme, would tend to be engaged mainly in the conservation and scientific management of indigenous forests, and the maintenance and management of the exotic plantations already existing, with the establishment of "fresh plantations as a more or less minor part of its work. That state of affairs could be expected until the time arrives when plantation* hare

reached a stage of maturity, at which time the attention of the Department would be required to be devoted largely to the supervision of the extraction and utilisation on a large acale of the timber so available." The Minister intimated that he wma going into the question of thinning State plantations to ascertain approximately the total sum needed for carrying out the necessary work, assuming that the resulting timber could be sold. There were definitely 10,000 acres, and in all probability 20,000 acres, in various plantations requiring treatment. In the absence of a market for the thinnings, the loading of the cost of carrying on the operations might constitute an intolerable burden on the plantations affected, and seriously endanger their value as an investment of public moneys. The size of the problem was such that the Minister intended to bring the matter before Cabinet, and have It discussed as a matter of Government policy. In the meantime small scale thinning operations were being conducted, in order to establish the most economical method, and to discover to what de-ree the species in the congested areas should be thinned. The Department would thus be in a position to proceed quickly when the work was attacked on a larger scale.