The Dominion MONDAY, JULY 6, 1931. THE FOREST SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 239, 6 July 1931, Page 8

The Dominion MONDAY, JULY 6, 1931. THE FOREST SERVICE

There appear*l in the Dominion on Saturday a letter •f o orran isation of the New subject of the proposed stated to be part of the Zealand Forest Service. These changes are sratea Government’s programme o ec°no y. str 7 o f the op i n ion that be saved, but our corresponde t y Mr Macintosh there will be no real economy. P foundations Elßs are entitled to repe- Xel oped its activities to Hie admiration of the i= that the Forest « handed back to the Department of Lands This, : accord Macintosh Ellis, would be a serious> t is prima rily aggSsass ' and fer n estS°hnft merely a business ,of setting aside suitable areas J S Tihe ( =? AgriculS. ” P s‘rtce wW concerned with .the welfare of the pnmary industries, of which tree-planting is an important , Ellis "The Forest Service receives to-day, says Mr. Macintosh Ellis, “three or four times over what it received for the same produce ten or fifteen years ago.” It must be remembered that while the Fores Service speeds money and, incidentally, has proved a convenient means of Absorbing substantial numbers of unemployed, it also earns money The revenue from the sale of its products is increasing annuaHy. Expenditure in tree-planting is essentially ? rod “ ctlv s|A brings in returns in more directions than the sale of timber. Under a Sy-directed scheme of afforestation the process, of denudatl °" is brought under expert and effective control, erosion is arrested, and land is g saved from destruction by floods. The Government shou therefore beware of economies, such as that proposed with the Forest Service, which may cost in the end far more than is saved to meet a by Mr. Macintosh Ellis that the Forestay Department should be merged with that of Agriculture seems to be much more logical and constructive than the Governments proposal which, it seems clear, would simply mean obscurity and stagnation for a great national enterprise. New Zealand, he reminds us, is destined to become one of the chief “timber-depots, of the Empire. In the accomplishment of this, "forestry and agriculture can bes work together.” It will, certainly be a matter for national regret if the work of afforestation which in a decade brought this country to the forefront should be allowed by short-sighted policy to rot and decay. ' . -