STATE FOREST SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 185, 1 May 1924, Page 7

STATE FOREST SERVICE

“NOT A PIECE OF EXPENSIVE FADDISM”

The suggestion recently made by an anonymous contributor through the Press that the Director of Forests was making extravagant demands for expenditure, was the subject of remarks bv tho president of the Wellington bianch of the New Zealand Forestry League at the annual meeting last night. “The anonymous contributor asserts that certain recommendations contained in the director’s last annual report would result in a capital expenditure of £250,000 and an annual expenditure of £100.000,” said Mr. D. R. Hoggard. “I have taken the trouble to ascertain tho estimated cost of carrying out the recommendations in question. No capital expenditure would be required at all, and the annual expenditure involved would amount to approximately £lo,ooo—that is to say, aoout one-tenth of the amount asserted by the anonymous contributor. No wonder the contributor has written under the shelter of anonymity. Instead of the State Forest Service being a piece of expensive faddism the real position is that the service is a highly profitable undertaking. It is quite a mistake to assume that the excess of receipts over expenditure for the year represents the total profit from, forestry. Each year ther© is a large increment in the value of growing plantations, and this should be taken into account. Even the indigenous State forests are increasing in value year by year, and this annual increase may fairly be taken into account as against th© expenditure for the protection and development of the forests in which the increment takes place. The suggestion that the State Forest Service is an expensive luxury is altogether absurd- The fact is that the service during tho past year has earned its keep many times over by turning to account th© timber on lands required for settlement —timber that would otherwise have been sacrificed. Th© receipts from this source alone during the year just closed amounted to over a quarter of a million pounds.