Chair of wood science

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32459, 20 November 1970, Page 12

Chair of wood science

The endowment of a chair of wood science at the University of Canterbury by N.Z. Forest Products, Ltd, is a happy example of co-operation between university and industry which should prove to be in the long-term interests of both. New Zealand as a whole should also benefit from the stimulus which will be given to research in what has become one of its most important export industries. Much research has already been undertaken into the growth, use, and marketing of forest products by private companies, the Forest Service, and the universities; the new chair at Canterbury should help the new School of Forestry to increase the range and depth of its activities. • The first appointment, Professor E. L. Ellis, will bring with him. long experience in timber development in various parts of the United States. The forest products department of the Oregon State University’s School of Forestry, where he has been head of research for the last five years, has made notable contributions in timber engineering and the use of wood-processing residues, both fields of considerable interest to New Zealand. Last month the Minister of Forests (Mr Maclntyre) pointed out that in New Zealand 30 per cent of standing timber is lost in processing. In an industry where the demand for timber and timber products is increasing faster than the industry can meet it, there is every incentive for research on the use of all available resources. t Nor is the demand likely to slacken off. The Forestry Development Conference forecast recently that export earnings from forest products would reach $148.2 million by 1979, 50 per cent more than the target set only last year by the National Development Conference. Exports in 1969 were worth $60.9 million. New markets are opening constantly; and it has become clear that the export of logs will have to be curtailed sharply in the next 10 years if sufficient timber is to be available for processing into more valuable products for export and for the home market without depleting dangerously the stands of trees available.