PERPETUAL FORESTS

Evening Star, Issue 20361, 18 December 1929, Page 17

PERPETUAL FORESTS

ADDRESS BY MR A. G. MORLEY A meeting of bondholders in New Zealand Perpetual Forests, Ltd., was held jn the Burns Hall last night to hear an address 011 the company’s .operations by Mr A. C. Morley, of Melbourne, a trustee for bondholders of. the above company. Air H. L. Tapley, who presided, said he was sure the fox-estry people must bo very gratified at such a satisfactory attendance. Air Alorley was a barrister at law, and would give them a short address on afforestation. Air and Airs Morley came to New Zealand from Melbourne by the ill-fated steamer Manuka, but were fortunate in leaving her at Bluff and motoring to Dunedin, though they were unlucky in losing their luggage. Air Alorley said the object of the meeting was not for the purpose of selling bonds or , for the purpose of propaganda, but was held for the sole Eurpose of enabling the bondholders to ear from impartial people what the true position was. Similar meetings had been held in the capitals of Australia. It was Just because the investments were ’ long-distance investments that the meetings -were necessary. The position was different from that of ordinary companies, because it was impossible to have a balance-sheet till the trees were at maturity, nor could there be a dividend till the trees were at maturity, before which they were practically unsaleable. Ho could inform them that the Forestry ComEany was carrying out faithfully and onourably its obligations. The timber reserves of the world, said Air Alorley, were rapidly approaching extinction. During the war Great Britain was denuded of 50 per cent, of her growth. In the United States the annual cut of timber ivas 5,500,000 acres, and in Canada the visible supply would last for only twenty to twenty-five years. There were only two countries in the world where plantation exceeded the denudation—Sweden and Montenegro. There were, of course, huge supplies of softwoods, but it was practically impossible to get this to a market. It was inevitable that the shortage ot timber must increase, and it followed that prices must rise, more particularly in view of the fact that new uses for timber were being discovered almost every day. A recent Australian publication bad contained an article showing how wood pulp was being used to make containers which would not only be used to contain dry things but also for packing butter and for containers for perfumes. They would be lighter and more easily handled than tins and bottles. An Australian firm also intended to commence the manufacture of bottles for milk out of wood pulp. Timber must become scarce while the demands for it were increasmg. New Zealand was admirably suited to the growing of timber, and trees would reach maturity in one-third ot the time that they would take in countries such as Sweden, Norway, and the north of America, where the conditions were much colder. The average increase per acre throughout Europe was twenty-eight cubic feet per acre per annum, but in New Zealand the average was 540 cubic feet, or nearly nineteen times as much. Yet in the colder countries afforestation was practised. How much more would it pay in New Zealand? Perpetual Forests had 122,000 acres of forest in New Zealand, and this area contained 83,000,000 trees. If these trees were planted in .a double row Bft apart there would be sufficient to go round the equator. If the trustees were to inspect every one of the 45,000 trees which had been planted m one year by the company it would take them four years and five and a-half months to go round walking at the rate of four miles an hour for fifty hours a week. There was no danger of overproduction, because that area of 46,000 acres would supply the United States of America for only a week. Therefore the whole of the company’s forests would be only three and a-half weeks’ supply. Mr Morley replied to criticisms of the scheme which had been made in Australia, and at the conclusion of his address a film was shown demonstrating the extent of the company’s operations, the methods adopted in treeplanting, and the development of the forests.