EXOTIC TIMBERS

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 188, 8 May 1934, Page 2

EXOTIC TIMBERS

Afforestation Work in New Zealand ACTIVITIES OF STATE Local Bodies and Private Enterprise State afforestation on an organised basis iu New Zealand dates back to 189 b, when an afforestation brunch of the Lauds Department was formed and forest-tree nurseries were established at Tapanui and Eweburn in the South Island and at Rotorua iu the North Is.and. To-day there Is a separate department, the State Forest Service, controlling the forestry interests of the Crown. Afforestation activities from just before the beginning of the present century were traced yesterday by the Commissioner of State Forests, lion. E. A. Ransom, who Recalled In an interview with “The Dominion” what had been done by the State, local bodies and private enterprise. “Afforestation as,a State activity in New Zealand is nearing its fortieth anniversary,” said Mr. Ransom. “For at least two decades before the State accepted the responsibility, private landowners—chiefly in the South' Island and to a lesser extent in Hawke’s Bay' and Auckland—had practised the craft of plantation formation on a small scale, and a few local bodies controlling treeless counties had followed suit, Old Plantations Gone, “The oldest estate plantations have now for the most part been sold and clear felled. In too many cases no system of regeneration or replacement has been adopted. Several local bodies now win a permanent revenue from their plantations; and many devote the whqje of this revenue to replanting and to extension of plantations. The State has definitely entered the era of sales of produce from its oldest artificial stands. Within the past decade a new aspirant for forest revenue has entered the field, the joint-stock company with a large capital 1 subscribed in the main in small amounts by a widespread investing public. This member of the trade has not yet reached the marketing point for its produce. “The business of forestry, therefore, which but a short two decades since was a very simple one—which .was in-, deed largely regarded as a fad of-the idealist rather than a business for deliberate investment of private savings and of public Wan moneys—has become a very complex one and now bids fair to rank aong the major industries of the Dominion if it can prove its worth in the really crucial test which it is now facing, the ordeal by battle, as it were, of finding, satisfying, and holding a permanent and remunerative market for its produce. Too much haste, any attempt to force an immature crop upon a market which is not ready' for it. will spell ruin of the industry. • ' , Conservative Purchasers.

“Timber buyers and users are notoriously the most conservative of purchasers. and are always ready to praise the timbers of the days that are gone. For some occult reason a public which in most lines of merchandise is ‘ever seeking something new,” in matters of timber ever holds fast to those things which are of good repute., Equally harmful to the forest investment is undue delay in marketing. The interest on the original investment —always a high figure jn forestry—mounts alarmingly. And worse still, the timber stands which furnish the marketable product deteriorate in quality and even in increment.” Mr. Ransom said that within the last decade many landowners had sold the old shelter belt plantations on their farms, and had received in return a welcome addition to the year’s revenue There were no signs of an orderly attempt on the part of holders of small timber lots to replace their sold plantations b.v a systematic series of younger woods or to devote any portion of the tiinber revenue to further timber production. On this system or lack of system heavy inroads had been made into the old estate plantations of the Waikato, Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa, Manajvatu, North Canterbury, and more recently South'Otago. Local Body Stands.

Local body forestry, Sir. Ransom continued, preceded State forestry in the Dominion by something over a decade. The total area now owned by local bodies for plantation purposes approximated 50,000. acres, the land aiid in many cases the trees, and even the labour of planting tl\eni, having been a free gift from the Crown. The older stands in this category had, together with the private plantations already mentioned, borne, the brunt of the demand for exotic timber supplies for trade purposes for the last dpcade. This demand now ran to 15,000,000 super feet per annum, the large outlet being for wooden cases and containers. All benzine cases used in the Dominion were now cut from local exotic timbers, the greater part of every exported fruit ease was the same, and practically every tomato case used in the local trade was the same. For some years now all Incoming bananas from both Niue' Island and Samoa had been eased in timber cut from exotic stands in the Dominion. Add to these' permanent and increasing timber-consuming industries, the numerous proprietary articles which were now regularly cased in insignis pine ahd associated timbers grown in New Zealand. Areas Ready For Saw. , Dealing with State forestry, Mr. Ransom said the total area of these artificial timber stands 6f all ages was nearly 400,000 acres. Some small areas of the earliest plantings were ripe for the saw and for clear felling if no better method were at hand, but the real problem facing the Forest Service was the utilisation on a large and systematic scale of the small size intermediate product resulting from the management of young'stands. Definite progress was being made in this phase of the product. Firewood bulked largely in the product and one small plantation had a steady order for 1000 cords annually. More important was ti recent sale which had been made entirely of small size “thinning” timber to a firm which was specialising in its plant to handle such timber for all manner of case timber. The next step appeared to be the impregnation of small size timbers for pole and post purposes, whore a very large market was waiting. If this could be successfully undertaken—and present indications were most promising—it would go far toward solving the most difficult problem of artificial forests, namely, the utilisation of small-size intermediate produce. Cautious and carefully considered steps to eater for these markets were the present contributions of the State Forest Service toward the solution of

the problems that were arising. There seemed to be but little doubt now that the trend Joward utilisation of exotic timbers that had now set in would increase with the years, and that not the least of the benefits that would accrue would be the cessation of a leakage of national income_ to pay for unnecessary imports of timber.