STATE FOREST SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 102, 1 May 1924, Page 6

STATE FOREST SERVICE

STRONG PLEA IN DEFENCE

AMPLY JUSTIFIED ITSELF.

In the course of his presidential address the president of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Forestry League (Mr. D. R. Hoggard) entered a strong plea in defence of the State Forest Service against recent attacks on it.

"I feels" he said, "that very - s great results are being achieved by the State Forest Service in spite of the limits imposed upon it by shortage of funds. Recently an insidious attack has been mads upon the service through the Press by an anonymous contributor. The suggestion has been made that the Director of Forestry is making extravagant demands for expenditure. 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 £IGO,OOO.

"I have taken the trouble to ascertain the 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 £10,000 —that is to say, about one-tenth of the amount asserted by the anonymous contributor. No wonder'the contributor has written under the shelter of anonymity. Instead vof the State Forest Service being a piece of expensive f addism 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 there 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 the 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. Ths fact is that the service during the past year has earned, its keep many times over by turning .to account the timber en lands required for settlement—timber that would otherwise have been sacrificed. The receipts from this source alone during the year just closed amounted to over, quarter of a million pounds. '■..'.

"The State Forest Service has "amply justified itself from the profit-earning point of view. . I feel, also, that it has done_ excellent -work -in the^raising of seedlings, the. extension of plantations, and the educational work it has been doing among farmers and others, which is now bearing fruit in the shape of private and local body plantations throughout the country." ~ . .

"I have one serious note of regret to sound-; however.' " The State Forest pel-vice, hampered by inadequate financial resources, is not doing anything towards the acquisition of privately-owned indigenous ■ forest. Some of this pri-vately-owned forest is of immense prospective commercial value, and its acquisition would be an excellent commercial proposition. Some of it has not a great prospective commercial 'value,' but it is absolutely essential for the protection of the headwaters of our rivers and streams. - : .- ■■•....: :■--. ..-.,. ..

"The Government seems to recognise the importance of planting exotics to assist in providing supplies of timber in the future; but adequate recognition has not been given to the necessity for maintaming protection forests for our rivers and streams. On the contrary, the Government has decided to gut the Urewera Country. Over twenty-eight thousand acres have just been thrown open foi- selection. .What disastrous results this will have upon the low-lyincr lands on the Rangitaiki and Whakatane Rivers, time alone will show.. It is a pity that such, a decision could be come" to without the consent of the State -Forest Service.