TREE MURDERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 May 1931, Page 12

TREE MURDERS

ALL RACES GUILTY. 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 race-wide. It was founded by Mr R. St. Barbe Baker, who was Assistant Conservator of Forests successively, in Kenya (East Africa), and Nigeria (West Africa) and whose ai mis to carry the message of the organisation throughout the Empire. China used to be a classical case of deforestation evils on a continental scale. Mr St. Barbe Barker adds Africa. He 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 one tribe, faced with starvation, has been driven to racial suicide —the chiefs have forbidden marriage, and the women refuse to bear children that would face a world of certain privation. Limiting the children of the soil means limiting the children of the home. Conversely, if a nation saves its trees, the trees will save the nation.

It is with this idea that Mr St. Barbe Baker makes his first visit to New Zealand, where he finds problems of exotic plantation and indigenous regeneration side by side. As. he has just landed, he has yet to make on-the-spot studies, but in the meanwhile he is full of praise for some of the things that he knows New Zealand has done, and full of eagerness to do anything to drive home 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 tokl American newspapers that “California has made a great contribution to New Zealand by giving that country the Monterey pine” (also known as 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 the world. The • soil seems to be particularly suited for these pines, and since 1924 a total acreage of 128,000 acres have been planted by one company. The Government of New Zealand also lay high stock by the Monterey pine and in all from fifty to sixty thousand acres a year are planted. In view of the coming world shortage in soft woods these trees would be reaching maturity at a time when the pinch would most seriously be felt. If the company referred to above stopped planting to-day they would already have 128,000 acres or ninety-eight and onehalf million trees ready to supply the needs of future civilisation. When it is taken into consideration that the an-

nual wood increment per acre per year is three thousand board feet, if not a single other tree were planted, in twenty yedrs’ time these forests would yield seven billion six hundred and eighty million feet of lumber. USES EXTENDING. “In the North-West Pacific are the last .best forests in the world. In California, Oregon, and Washington, where there are still very extensive forests, we are liable to overlook this. United States has cut over seveneighths 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, use 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. The amount of forest products a country uses is some indication of the civilisation attained.” After referring to the 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 last few decades have been largely responsible for bringing about a shortage of wood. The virgin forests of the world are no longer adequate td supply the everincreasing demands made upon them. Before the World War the things that were generally made from wood were numbered at 500, but to-day, with the development of the celluloise industry, something in the neighbourhood of 4000 uses for wood have been counted. For every single substitute found for wood, such as cement in buildings or steel doors for offices, there are about ten new ifees 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 been stated by a wellknown Californian professor that v no city can grow beyond its water supply. Therefore forests, which form catchment areas and store up the 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 are becoming depopulated, as the 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 the shores of dried-up lakes.”