FOREST RECLAMATION

Evening Star, Issue 17765, 13 September 1921, Page 4

FOREST RECLAMATION

ACTIVITY IN AUSTRALIA. EXPERIMENTS IN WOOD-PULP. ME SIDEY’S OBSERVATIONS. Solomon tells us that drowsiness shall clotho a man with rags. Mr T. K. Sidey is in no fear of that condemnation. His nature is to keep busy. Send him for a holiday, and lie cannot help looking into this and that, with the'view of doing his country a sendee. Ifo cornea bad: from Australia full of first-hand information on a wide variety of subjects. Forestry is one of these. Hearing that Mr Sidey had given time to that matter, a ‘ Star’ reporter questioned him on the theme, and thus obtained particulars which aro of general interest. “I had interviews with tho chief foresters of the various States that I visited,” said the member for Dunedin South. “In a chat with the forester of New South Wales wo discussed the question of tho regeneration of native forests, and he expressed the opinion that to attempt the resuscitation of mixed forests where there is dense undergrowth is of doubtful value, and he added that in but few cases lias it been successful. The forester told me that it is extremely difficult to get natural reproduction in sufficient quantity, and that the expense of getting reproduction and keeping the woods clear of weeds might be greater than clearing a forest and replanting it. In New South Wales the policy is_to regenerate hardwoods and plant conifers where tho 'conditions for regeneration are not favorable.

11 On. tho subject of forestry education the opinion was expressed by'three directors that tho proper place'for a forest school is in a lorest. If. however, owin'* to financial or other reasons, this is not practicable, instruction might be given at tho university, such a course to occupy, say, the first two years, to bo followed by a course of ono year in a school within a forest.

“A distinction was drawn between two types of officers; tho ono the highlytrained expert who takes his degree ’in forestry; phe other tho woodman, or ranger. Tho main purpose of a forestschool should bo to train officers for tho Forest Department. That department can absorb only a limited number of officers of the highly-trained type. Having that fact in view, it was decided at the conference of Australian foresters that each State should provide its own school for training rangers, and that there ought to be one school for the Commonwealth for the more highly-trained type of officer. “ There are already throe ranger schools —ono in T ictoria, one in New South Wales, the other in South Australia. Such a school is not yet established in Queensland. Tho director there is inclined to take a somewhat different view, believing that one school might ho organised in Queensland to servo all the purposes of that State.

“ Nothing has been done in the direction of foiablislung a- Commonwealth school. “So far the Queensland forester has organised bis staff with 60 per cent, of returned soldiers, all specially selected by himself, ;ukl they have been doing excellent work. A copy of gome of flic working plans prepsred by returned soldiers was shown to me. In Victoria, and New Ronth Wales tho employment of returned soldiers has not been so successful; but the directors of those schools have not had the samo opportunities of selc-cting' their men.

“ Experiments have been carried cut in the Federal forests products laboratory in Perth (W.A.), with a view to testing tho paper-making qualities of the woods of

the various Stairs. Wood saplings have been sent for that pnrpc.se. Of tbo Queens land trees Die rflkv oak is pieced first as to results. Tbo Victorian mountain ash was up Dll recently regarded as Dio best paper-making wood in .Australia; but just before I left Sydney I was informed that the latest indications pointed to the New South Wales blackbntt as likely to prove the beet of all the timbers tested in Australia. It Is card to be practically the only Now South Wales tree in accessible localities which can supply the quantity of young timber required to make the industry a succcpb. 'lt is the chief hardwood of the wet coastal forests, ■ami reproduces very quickly. lam of opinion that Now Zealand ought to take advantage of the West Australian laboratory to have some of our timbers similarly tested.

“On the subject of the employment of prison labor -for tree-planting, the opinion of the Australian forestere generally was adverse from the economic point of view.”