SPECIAL INTERVIEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 30, 5 February 1901, Page 3

SPECIAL INTERVIEWS.

TIMBER IN THE MOTU,

AN EXPERT'S OPINION

ENCOURAGING REPORT FROM

MR PROUSE

Yksthrdav Mr .Tames Prousc, the wellknown miller, of Hawke's Bay, was in town, having returned from the Motu, where ho had been making an inspection of the timber growing in that locality. “The quality and the quantity of the timber is there,” said Mr Prousc, with emphasis, to the Times representative, and that was the keynote of his remarks.

A special feature about the timber, Mr Prouso went on to explain, is that there is little trace of its being “ ring-streak,” a blemish that in sonic districts makes a great difference in the quantity of timber in the trees felled down.

The red pine, lie says, is large. “ I saw trees,” he remarked, “ six feet at the butt, and seventy feet clear—-that it is to say, seventy feet in the barrel, up to where the first branch commences. Plenty of the trees arc live feet at the butt. It appears to mo to bo an old forest. You will find trees four feet through lying about the place.” “ Ono rimu that has been blown down along the road,” added Mr Downes, who on behalf of tho Motu Settlers’Association luid been deputed to meet Mr Prousc, “is eight feet at the butt.” In reply to a question as to what time he had been able to give to his examination of the Motu district, Mr Prousc replied that he was there two days. “That is not much,” said Mr Prousc, “ but when you bear in mind that ono lias gone from ridge to ridge, and lias been to the top of Trig li, which is over 3000 ft above the sen level, one can see as much from those points in two days as by a week of travelling through the bush.” “ You have no doubt that the timber is of good quality ? ” “ There is no question about that.” “ Is the timber sufficiently closo to be profitably milled'? ” *• It is ns good bush as I have seen for a long time. It is first-class milling bush, it. is not a scattered busli. Besides, it is a splendid country to work in. Thero is scarcely a ‘ring-streak’ in the trees, as you find in stony land. Through these ‘ ring-streaks ’ I have seen a 1000 ft log only produce 300 ft of timber, You only want the railway pushed on to give facilities for getting it out. If it pays to cut timber at Levin, and send it to Australia, first having to pay the charges for the 60 miles to Wellington, it should surely pay to export it from the Motu.” Again our representative raised the point ns to tho quantity and quality, of which so much had previously been heard.

“As the bush stands,” he replied, “ I cannot give any precise calculations as to tho total area. For instance, L got on to these little points looking across the bush. It might be two, three, or four miles—it was not to be expected that I was going to push my way through all that distance of bush to make accurate measurements. What the people now have a right to demand is that Government should send a timber expert and surveyor ; then let the Settlers’ Association arrange for someone in the district to show thoin over the country, and have a proper report drawn up. It would take a surveyor a month to do that work.”

Mr Prouse went on to explain that unless by some systematic method the distances could not well be judged, but lie added that there was no question as to the quantity being there. A settler was now, lie said, compelled to cut down five per cent, of the timber on his land per year, and thus had to destroy timber for which a tithe of sixpence an acre for milling purposes would bo charged by tho Government. He estimated that on the country ho had seen, there was from 12,000 to 15,000 feet of timber to the acre, two-thirds of that being red pine, 8,500 white pine, and 500 matai. It would }je difficult to give an average over the

whole district. On one quarter-acre alone, he reckoned there : was fully 25,000 feet of timber; but on other parts there was a swamp and so on to be reckoned up. If the bush were cut up into fifty-acre sections, it would not be difficult* for him to judge closely’as to quantities. But still, he was t quite satisfied as to quantity and quality being there. As far as he had seen of the Motu Valley, it gave a splendid grade for a tramway. “ If a saw-miller does not want to have the heart-ache,” said Mr Prouse, “he will not go up to the Motu, and see the way the timber is being sacrificed.” Mr Prouse went to say that kauri was rising in price from 6d to Is each year, not owing to a greater demand, but owing to a diminishing quantity available. When he was a delegate at the conference in Wellington he had pointed out that 25 years hence would see the last of the kauri as a timber for extensive milling purposes. With the improvement in the condition of things, people aro going in for better building, and the demand for timber is likely to increase. “What will be the verdict* of the people in twenty years’ time ?’’ asked Mr Prousc, when alluding to the destruction of timber that was now being permitted. He wont on to say that he had at the Conference given a paper on the conservation of forests; resolutions had been passed, but up to that day no notice had been taken of them by those who had tho power to put a stop to the wholesale destruction of forests. “ Thousands of acres of timber that had taken hundreds of years to grow are being cut down, and we are planting a little timber to replace it that will not be fit to cut down for half-a-dozen generations,” said Mr Prouse with emphasis. The Motu timber, lie said, was good ; it was a splendid district to work; there were not the gulches and broken ground to he contended with as in other places. “ I never saw a better district for getting timber out of than the Motu,” concluded Mr Prousc, who strongly urged that the people of this district should get the. Government to have the district officially reported on.