AFFORESTATION SCHEMES

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 July 1927, Page 11

AFFORESTATION SCHEMES

PROGRESS IN NEW ZEALAND. The hope that experiments which the State Forest Service is now conducting will make it possible to cover 5.000,000 acres of the Dominion’s waste spaces with growing forest in 25 years, was expressed by the Director of Forests, Mr. L. Macintosh Ellis. Mr. Ellis said the department’s present scheme provided for the planting of 300,000 acres by 1925. Already 100,000 acres had been planted, and 30,000 acres were in hand for this year, leaving 170,000 acres to be completed. Forests were being established at Riverhead, Maramarua and Kaiangaroa for the supply of the Auckland Province; at Karioi for Wellington, Hawke’s Bay and Taranaki; at Golden Downs for Nelson; at Hamner and Balmoral for Canterbury; at Tapanui, Green Vale and the Blue Mountains for Otago and Southland; and at the rimu centre, near Hokitika, for Westland. The varieties of trees used included Douglas fir, white and red cedar Corsican, ponderosa, and insignia pines, macrocarpa and a small assortment of eucalyptus, a range which would provide for all normal industrial requirements. While this programme would supply the timber required for the internal needs of the Dominion, said Mr. Ellis, it was a very modest effort when it was considered there were 5,000,000 acres of waste land in New Zealand which were only suitable for afforestation. The present system of planting young trees raised in nurseries was so expensive, however, that a method more in keeping with the Dominion’s resources would have to be found if the afforestation of this great area was to be undertaken. With this end in view the department was making experiments in broadcast and spot sowing and power drilling throughout the country. If these were successful it would be possible to plant the 5,000,000 acres in 25 years at an annual cost very little greater than that of the present scheme, under which it would take 200 years to plant the same area. He hoped the new system would be perfected in about two years’ time.