The Dominion FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 1926. FORESTS AND SETTLEMENT

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 94, 15 January 1926, Page 8

The Dominion FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 1926. FORESTS AND SETTLEMENT

In his annual report last year, the Director of Forestry (Mr. E Macintosh Ellis) said that to-day a splendid and lively forest consciousness” was evident in the people of the Dominion, both collectively and individually. Evidence in support of this claim is to be seen in many directions. Educational work by the State Forest Service and by public-spirited bodies and individuals, rising prices for timber, and an awakening to the fact that uncontrolled forest clearing and destructive floods are united in a relationship of cause and effect, have all combined to demonstrate and emphasise the supreme value and importance of a policy of forest conservation. As a people we are rapidly learning to look upon our remaining forests and the plantations by which they are being supplemented as assets that must be jealously safeguarded and protected. „ More than this is implied, however, in the full development of a “forest consciousness.” H the most is to be made of our forests, they must be not only conserved, but turned to account as a base for permanent settlement on an increasing scale. This is an aspect of forest development which as yet has received little attention in this country, but well deserves consideration. An early and rapid extension of settlement in our forest areas is not of course, to be expected. No comparison of immediate and practical value can be instituted between our uninhabited forest areas and the heavily populated forest regions of various European countries. . _ n It is noteworthy, however, that even in Great Britain the extension of forest plantations is being made a means of settling families on the land. This is the more remarkable since Britain is to all intents and purposes a country without forests, and its afforestation activities have been developed as yet on a compaiatively small scale. The British Forestry Commission recently issued its fifth annual report, and from this it appears that in five years 37,790 acres have been planted with trees. In connection with this planting scheme seventy-two forest holdings have already been made available, and the Commission is engaged upon the provision of 141 more. Each holding consists of a maximum of ten acres of cultivated land, with such additional grazing as may be available, and holders are guaranteed by the Forestry Commission 150 days work in each year. In giving these and other particulars in a recent article in the Nineteenth Century and After, the Right Hon. Christopher Addison, formerly British Minister of Reconstruction, observed that at present this scheme of settlement was in its infancy, but that it offered ultimately a means of secure livelihood to a large and stable population on land now practically derelict. Afforestation plans in Britain look to the planting, over an extended period, of from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 acres. On the basis of British official reports, Dr. Addison estimates that “so far as afforestation itself is concerned” the planting and development of this area would probably lead to the settlement of something over 300,000 persons, apart from others dependent upon them and engaged in the collateral industries that always spring up in forest areas. Whatever the ultimate figure may be however (he adds), and though the numbers capable of being employed quickly may be disappointing to sonic sanguine people who have looked to afforestation as a rapid means of providing additional employment, it is unquestionable that the settlement and steady employment, under healthy conditions, of so large a population would provide a national asset of enormous value. In comparison with the limited area of British plantations, our forest resources in this country arc enormous. As against the 37,790 acres planted in Britain we had at the end of March last 62,906 acres of State plantations. This apart, however, we have millions of acres of indigenous forest and restorable forest. On much of this vast area, development and improvement presumably might well be facilitated and accelerated by a scheme of forest settlement. The forest policy of the Dominion evidently should be directed with an eye to the inauguration of a scheme of this nature at the earliest possible date. Forest settlement rightly directed will enable the Dominion to open its doors wider to immigration. Looking at the experience of other countries which have made good and provident use of their forests, it appears to offer an undoubted means of adding largely to the propertied of the population which is established, with advantage to the individual and benefit to the country generally, on the land.