N.Z. SCHOOL OF FORESTRY

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25551, 20 July 1948, Page 6

N.Z. SCHOOL OF FORESTRY

' CANTERBURY FAVOURED LOCAL BODIES SUPPORT : CHAMBER OF COMMERCE J Assurance of support in its efforts • to have the .New Zealand School of . Forestry re-established in Canterbury, ’ has been received by the Canterbury 1 Chambe:- of Coipmerce from 32 local 1 bodies and other organisations in the . South Island. Support has come from . as far afield as the boroughs of Motu- ’ eka in the north and Gore in the J south, the Southland Catchment Board, ■ the Dunedin City Corporation, and the Otago Employers’ Association. “Notwithstanding apparent ‘family 1 diferences’ on minor matters, there is a strong solidarity of opinion and effort among South Island organisations on important matters,” said the acting-president of the Chamber of Commerce (Mr A. Henderson). “The response has been most gratifying, and augurs well for the coming public meeting at which neglect of the South Island will be discussed.” In advising the chamber of their support, several local bodies have indicated that they have made separate representations to the Government for the establishment of the school in the South Island. The Mackenzie County Council forwarded to th'e chamber a copy of a letter sent to the Commissioner of State Forests (Mr C. F. Skinner), which read:—“This council wishes to point out to you that 60 per cent, of the land mass of New Zealand is in the South Island, that there are vast areas of third-class land in the South Island that it is not economical to keep in agricultural or pastoral production, and that the climate is more suited to the production of better class timber than is obtainable in the North Island. “Much of the vast areas of thirdclass land in Canterbury are going back rapidly, and are now only growing gorse and other weeds, and this land would be better planted in trees. There are no big forests in South Canterbury, and a large Government afforestation scheme should be started in South Canterbury where timber of all kinds is very scarce. There are large areas of very poor land from a pastoral point of view of the Mackenzie County, but which will grow good timber. There is a railway to Fairlie and a safe deep water port at Timaru.” The Motueka Borough Council said that there were vast possibilities in the Golden Downs State Forest in Nelson, and there was also an extraordinarily rapid growth of exotic trees in that area. Revenue From Westland

A copy of a letter sent to Mr Skinner from the Westland County Council read:—“This council unanimously supports the resolution conveyed to you by the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, and further wishes to suggest that you might bear in mind the considerable annual revenue your department derives from this county when the question of any forestry school is under consideration.” “According to the report in Professor Wadham’s recommendations to the University Senate on the re-estab-lishment of a forestry school, Auckland was suggested as the site for the school mainly because of the location of the largest wood using industries in New Zealand in that part and at Rotorua,* said a letter received from the Dunedin City Corporation. “He failed to remark that none of these industries is operating on an economic basis. “The Whakatane Paper Mills have net yet paid a dividend. New Zealand Forest Products have yet to pay a dividend, and were unable to raise 50 per cent, of a new issue of shares in New Zealand or Australia, and the large State mill at Rotorua, according to Government reports, is operating at an economic loss to the various forest areas concerned.” Those were the three main operations referred to by Professor Wadham, and it was considered that a forestry school should not be founded on the basis of uneconomic industries, the letter continued. The areas concerned were on pumice lands which produced a type of forestry practice not applicable to the remainder of New Zealand. Large scale milling undertakings in the Tapanui district were reasonably handy to Canterbury, while the only successful paper mill in New Zealand was at Mataura. That mill used about £500,000 worth of imported wood pulp a year, the letter concluded The Riccarton Borough Council unanimously agreed last evening I

to support the Canterbury Progress League' in its endeavours to have the School of Forestry established in the South Island.