A FOREST SCHOOL

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 256, 23 July 1920, Page 8

A FOREST SCHOOL

QUESTION OF LOCATION

WELLINGTON MOST SUITABLE

SIR DAVID HUTCHINS INTERVIEWED

In reference to a Ministerial announcement that the Forest School about to be established is to be located at Christchurch. Sir David Hutchins expressed a decided opinion to a Dominion representative thnt the school would bo very much better placed at Wellington. "This city," he observed, "is the centre of a great natural forest area for tho cultivated forests of the future. It is hemmed in by poor, steep ground which' should naturally be under forest, the Ifimutakas and the Tararuas to the north; to tho south tho Sounds areas, with wator carriage or rail carriage from these areas to Wellington. Nowhere elso in New Zealand are these two conditions necessary for forest development to be found; a good timber market and close to it and within easy reach of it ground which can only be really productive by forestry. A Central Position. "Students at the Forest School want demonstration areas within easy reach, but at the same time they wnnt to bo in a placo central to tho chief forest districts of New Zealand. Christchurch has no largo forest area near At hand, and tho nearest, important forest area, tho western coast, in a day's journey from Christchurch! With the Forest School at Wellington it is not much farther from Wellington, to the kauri forest areas than from Christchurch to tho West Coast. The kauri forests are more important for s'.udents to visit than the West Coast, because they represent forest* of special value requiring special treatment, while the West Coast is the ordinary mixed forest of New Zealand to bo seen everywhere. It is usual in other countries for tho senior or other forpst officer at the head of the administration to give lectures at tho Forest School. Such a practice adds to the economy and efficiency of the Forest School.' Since tho officer at tho head of tho New Zealand Forestry Department will, of course, mako his headquarters at Wellingtpn, another reason thus appears for establishing the Forest School "It has boen urged that the late Mr. T W. Adams left a bequest for forestry teaching at Canterbury; but this, .£2OOO or £3000, is only enough in interest value to pay for a scholarship at a Forest School, and so has little bearing on the general question.

Grade of Teaching Required, "It is urged that teaching facilities are better nt Canterbury College than at Victoria College. That superiority exists at present, but it is unlikely to last, and iu any ense the teaching facilities at Victoria- College aro enough to meet the requirements of a New Zealand Forest School, which, on account of tho backward state of forestry in New Zealand, can for many years be only a secondary Forest School. For instruction m the management of cultivated forests the higher-grade students, must go to Europe lo obtain a practical knowledge of tho management of cultivated forests. South Africa, with exactly tho same class of forests as New Zealand, tried a first-grado forest school for soino years, and though it was much easier to send students from there to Europo for practical work, it was finally found .best to have the higher forest training in Europe. This is no reflection on the forest training that can bo" given in New Zealand, but it is well:to know, at the outset, that tho higher forest grade traininp must bo in Europe, and that it will be one hundred years or more before New Zealand can have the practical demonstration of forest management that is to bo seen in Europe to-day. "Tho above," concluded Sir David, "seem pretty strong arguments for having the Forest School at Wellington, and it-seeuw to me that "Wellington people should take the matter up, or it may bo. settled over their" heads, without iTcuig fullv considered. I gave a memo, on the subject some time back to the Begistrar of the University, but these weresubstantially the arguments I used.