The Nation’s Timber

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27445, 3 September 1954, Page 10

The Nation’s Timber

In his annual report the Director of Forestry (Mr A. R. Entrican) takes obvious pride in the national timber industry, in which the State plays a large part as operator and as supervisor. Mr Entrican’s pride is justified by the account he gives of an industry which is not only economically valuable now but is also in such robust health that it has excellent prospects of supporting the rapid commercial growth that will follow when the Murupara project is complete. Perhaps the most satisfactory feature of the report is the evidence of positive progress towards the conservation and the more discriminating use of the country’s indigenous timber. Although the total of rough-sawn

timber was almost unchanged in the year, the composition of the cut was significantly changed. A decline of some 14,400,000 board feet of indigenous timber was nearly matched by an increase in the output of exotic timber. The bulk of the reduction was in rimu and white pine. This change took place at a time when timber demands for an expanded house-building programme were fully met, when good stocks were held at mill and merchants’ and users’ yards, and when timber exports had increased to 21,000,000 board feet. These facts support the director’s belief that timber users in New Zealand are “at last” coming to recognise and accept that indigenous softwoods must be replaced for many uses by exotics, and that this is both reasonable and safe. The director notes that some architects and lending institutions

are still. reluctant to experiment with exotic timber; but with more pressure-treatment plants turning out a good supply of durable building timber, this reluctance is disappearing. The export of timber for the year was second in value to the record year of 1951; but here again the composition of the trade was different. Early last year the Government prohibited the export of indigenous softwoods. Consequently, the exports were almost entirely exotics; and the exports of radiata pine were the highest yet reached. However, the director says that if the promising markets for New Zealand’s surplus production of exotics are to be exploited the industry will have to pay most careful attention to grading and be quick to adopt (or improve on) overseas standards of marketing. Mr Entrican is more hopeful than many in the timber trade have been about the conservation of indigenous forests; he believes that “according “ to the intensity of conservation and “silviculture given to their man“agement”, the indigenous forests could contribute permanently between 60,000,000 and 100,000,000 board feet yearly. That, of course, would be a very big drop from the 300,000,000 board feet or more milled in the last few years; but it is a very much better prospect than appeared in 1952, when the Forest Service estimated that at the 1952 rate of cutting the remaining indigenous softwood resources would be exhausted “in less than ' a “generation”. The director’s more optimistic outlook is supported by Mr J. J. de Gryse, a world-famous Canadian forest biologist, who recently visited New Zealand to report on the pathological condition of both the exotic and indigenous forests. Mr de Gryse’s studies, the director believes, “hold a clue to “ what may. be a more fruitful “approach to the whole question of “ indigenous, forest conservation ”, However, it is inevitable that in the future the exotic forests will have to provide substitutes for indigenous timbers. The exotic forests now supply 246,000,000 board feet out of a total cut of 575,000,000 board feet. The director estimates that within less than a generation the total exotic cut will be more like 650,000,000 out of a total sawntimber production of 750,000,000 board feet. This will entail substantial expansion of the exotic forest area. Official policy does not look to expansion by the Government alone, or even chiefly; communal forests (rathen than. State forests) and farm woodlots are regarded as preferable. Interested local bodies would be helped practically by the Forest Service’s resources and great experience. The service is searching for the best means by which it can help local bodies and individuals willing to . co-operate.

Another satisfactory feature in the year's operations is noted in the report. In a year when weather for most of the North Island and part of the South Island was the driest and most dangerous fqr many years, no serious damage from fire occurred in the State forests, and in other areas damage was remarkably light. The director believes that this satisfactory state of affairs can be laid directly to publicity which has stirred in the public a realisation of “what forest means to the nation “ and what fire means to the forest ”. But not many will doubt the need to maintain these constant reminders to the careless or thoughtless.