The Dominion TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1917. MEETING THE WAR BILL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 60, 4 December 1917, Page 6

The Dominion TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1917. MEETING THE WAR BILL

It is commonly agreed that the only way to meet the enormous financial demands imposed by the war—demands which will continue for many years to come—is to conccntrate as soon as conditions will permit upon such a development of our natural resources ana expansion of our primary and other industries as will lead to a largely increased production of wealth. This undoubtedly is the only ljne of financial and economic salvation. We shall in no other way escape a lengthy period of commercial and industrial depression which would tell heavily upon every section of tho community. Fortunately this country is richly endowed witil resources which offer amplcscopo for an enterprising policy of development. The field open for such a policy is all the wider since we havj in tho past most unwisely neglected some of our most valuable sources of potential wealth. This observation nowhere holds greater forco than as it applies to our indigenous forests. Many people may be surprised to learn that the methodical development of our forests in itself offers a ready means of meeting the tremendous financial obligations imposed by the war ; but there is in fact very convincing evidence to this effect. The best available information on the subject indicates that to substitute a sound policy ot forest conservation and development for the waste and neglect at present in vogue would ensure the creation within a few generations of a body of wealth which wou d more than cover even such liabilities as we are incurring in order to carry on the war. One result of the past neglect of our foreslts is that no oxact and detailed in * ori tion is available in regard to the wealth in trees that has been heedlessly destroyed and tho forest areas still capablo of being permanently preserved as a wealth-producing asset. But the position is approximately known, and as regards what is possible in tho exploitation ot our forest wealth some striking lesions aro to be drawn from the experience of other countries. Australia, for instance, never had any larue area of good forest, and the

greater portion of what it had has been destroyed along with the larger area of worthless forest. Yet a calculation b'ased on official figures shows that the loss to Australia from the bad forestry which has only in recent years given place to more rational methods will amount at the end of thirty years to approximately £u85,000,000. Presenting this impressive example of the penalties that are visited on the neglect of native forests, Australia also affords some evidence of the results that follow on the introduction of better methods. For instance, in Victoria, the forest revenue iose from £17,000 to close on £70,000 in ten years. The forest revenue of New South Wales rose from £10,000 in 1901 to £95,000 eleven years later. These increased revenues were obtained from forests of much smaller area than should have been preserved—forests which even in their contracted area will not aEain full productivity for many years to come—and by Forest Departments not yet fully equipped and organised as are equivalent departments in Europe and South Africa, These, it must be remembered, are not only increasing but permanent sources of revenue. Though we lack detailed information about tho condition and possibilities of our own forests, it is not in doubt that given the institution of a sound policy they represent not a vanishing, but a permanent, asset, from which untold millions of wealth may be drawn. In proportion to its size, this country is in a position to draw a far better annual return from its forests than Australia. But unless we correct our. present methods, this splendid asset, already sadly depleted and damaged, will be wholly dissipated in a decade or two._ This fact is plainly emphasised in the Departmental report on State forestry laid before Parliament last session. Nothing is more urgently necessary from'the point of view of meeting our war obligations, and in the interests of sound development, than that we should as soon as possible make an end of tho prodigal waste of our native forests, of which we have hitherto been guilty, and treat them as what <in fact they are —the richest crop that a large part of our national acreage will ever bear. Happily, tho Government is at length giving some signs_ of an awakening to tho loss that is_ going on, and tno necessity of finding a remedy. It has made a good beginning in employing a distinguished forestry expert, Mb. D. E. Hutchins, to report upon our forests. On account of his initial training in Franco and subsequent long experience in the Indian yid African forest services. Mr. Hutchins speaks with full authority. Some time ago ho made a demarcation survey of the Waipoua kauri forest, and he is also reporting on the larger questions _of the future treatment of our native forests and afforestation. His report will no doubt provide an authoritative foundation for tho forest policy which is so badly needed in New Zealand. In observations already published, Mr. Hutchins has indicated that although this country has unwisely wasted much_ of its forest wealth, it is in a position to reap a rich return by working its remaining forests under methods which have been fully tested m Europe, America, and elsewhere. He names as the two urgent measures immediately necessary to put New Zealand, where _ forestry. _ is I concerned, into the position of otner 1 civilised countries: (1) Forest demarcation ; (2) the formation of a technical, non-political Forest Department, on the lines of the Forest Department of the United States of America. In tho first place, our forests must be completely surveyed, in order to show what areas shouid be conserved (and in some cases restored to productivity). The rest is a substitution of orderly development and working for the present haphazard destruction. Such a policy, as has been indicated, would result in the production of a body of wealth which ultimately would offset our enormous expenditure on this war. But if our forests are to be preserved and developed as a permanent wealth-producing _ asset, no time must bo lost in putting an end to the waste and destruction now in vogue. Another incentive to speedy action appears in the fact that tho inauguration of a policy of forest conservation would open up a wide field of employmerit, not only to men in sound health, but to many who are incapable of any save the lightest forms of labour. Tho prompt enterprise needed to save our forests would not only be rewarded by a material accession of national wealth and public revenue, but would appreciably assist a solution of problems with which tho Government will have to grapple during the demobilisation period.