TREE MURDER

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 103, 4 May 1931, Page 10

TREE MURDER

ALL RACES GUILTY

STARVATION IN AFRICA

"MEN OF THE TREES"

Civilised people as much as (or more than) savage tribes have wasted wantonly their forest heritage; therefore the Men of the Trees Association, though it had its origin in a great tribal gathering in the highlands of Kenya in 1922, is yet an organisation that might well be world-wide and racewide. It was founded by Mr. E. St. Barbo Baker, who was Assistant Conservator of Porests successively in Kenya (East Africa), and Nigeria (West Africa) and whose aim. is to carry tho message of the organisation throughout tho Empire. TREE-WASTE AND RACE SUICIDE. China used to be a classical case of deforestation evils on a continental scale. Mr. St. Barbe Baker adds Africa. Ho states that in certain parts of Africa, where for generations nomadic tribes have burned down forests to make room for agriculture, desert conditions have resulted to such an extent that at least ono tribe, faced with starvation, has been driven to racial suicide—tho chiefs have forbidden marriage, and tho women refuse to bear children that would'face a world of certain privation. Limiting the children of the soil means limiting tho children of tho homo. Conversely, if a nation saves its trees, the trees will save the nation. It is with this idea that Mr. St. Ba.rbc Baker makes his first visit to Now Zealand, where ho finds problems of exotic plantation and indigenous regeneration side by side. As ho has just landed, he has yet to make on-the-spot studies, but in tho meanwhile he is full of praise for some of the things that he knows Now Zealand has done, and full of eagerness to, do anything to drive homo the principle that "tree-planting is a touchstone of true citizenship. " North America gave New Zealand, a tree, and New Zealand is showing America how to win the best from it. In passing through California en route to New Zealand, he told American newspapers that "California has made a great contribution to New Zealand by I giving that country tho Monterey pine" (also known r.s pinus radiata and pinus insignis). He added: "In New Zealand this tree grows from three to five times as rapidly as in other parts of tho world. The soil seems to be particularly suited for these pines, and since 1924 a total acreage of 12S thousand acres have been planted by ono company. The Government of Now Zealand also lay high stock by the Monterey pine and in all from fifty to sixty thousand acres a year are jjlanted.' In view of the coming world shortage in soft woods, these trees would be reaching maturity, at a time when tho pinch would most seriously be felt. If the coinpauy referred to above stopped planting to-day they would already have 128 thousand acres or nin-ety-eight and one'half million trees ready to supply the needs oi future civilisation. When it is taken into consideration that the annual .wood increment per acre per year is three thousand board feet, if not a single other troe were planted, in twenty years' time these forests would yield seven billion six hundred and eighty million feet; of lumber.

SUPPLY FALLING, USES EXTENDING. .

"In. the North-West Pacific arc tho last best forests in the- world. In California, Oregon, and "Washington, whoro thero are still very extensive forests, wo arc liable to overlook this. United States has cut over seven-eighths of their virgin forests. Each year four and a half times as much as is grown is consumed. United-States and Canada, with one-twelfth of the world's population, uso half the forest products of the world. The higher the standard of living of any people, the greater are the demands made upon the forests. Tho amount of forest products a country uses is some indication of tho civilisation attained.'' After referring to tho production of paper, Mr. St. Barbe Baker added: "Trees are needed in the world to-day as never before. The tremendous material strides made by our present civilisation during the Inst few decades have been largely responsible for bringing about a shortage of wood. The virgin forests of the world aro no longer adequate to supply the evcrincreasing demands made upon them. Before the World War the things that were generally made from wood wore numbered at 500, but to-day, with tho development of tho cellulose industry, something in the neighbourhood or! 4000 uses for wood have boon counted. For every.single substitute found for wood, such as cement in buildings or steel doors for offices, there are about ten. new uses for forest products. "Trees, apart from their direct economic value, exert a beneficial influence affecting climate, agriculture, and even the very existence of man. It has. recently boon stated by a wellknown Californian professor that no city can grow beyond its water supply. '.Therefore forests, which form catchment areas and store up tho water, are indispensable to great cities. When any civilisation neglects its forests.that civilisation dies. This can bo more clearly demonstrated in Africa, where vast areas are drying up and arc becoming depopulated, as tho direct result of forest destruction. Recent scientific research has shown that the Sahara has not always been desert. Remains of trees have been found on the banks of vanished rivers and on tho shores of dried-up lakes."