The Hawera Star. SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1925. NEW ZEALAND FORESTS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 2 May 1925, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1925. NEW ZEALAND FORESTS.

Dplivf-rrrt rv-iry evening by 5 oVlnck -n ITawern, ALinaia. Norinanby, Okaiau-a, Rl( ham, Alangatoki. Kapnuga, Ain in. Hurley villi’, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Wiiakamara, Oliaiiyai. Meremere, Fros-er Rnarl, and Ararata.

There is a little story appearing in tlie Smile Castle section of to-night's Star which carries a message for older heads than those by whom it. would ordinarily ho read: “Wise is he who chooses a friend like the trees.” In the past week reports on the forest work both of New Zealand and of Australia, have appeared in our columns, and it may be time well spent if we pause to' consider the Dom-in-ion’is position a little more in detail. The State Forest Stervice is a comparatively new force in our midist. While there have (been State ' forests for long enough, they figured ,a,s ai kind of excrescence on the Lands and Suivey Department, and were without doubt the Cinderella of national resources. And, while the State planted a few trees every now and then, there was practically no dear-cut policy, -and! certain ly no practical advice and assistance for the ordinary land-holder who might wish, to make timber hira crop. ’ W r ith -the formation o-f the Forestry Department in 191 f), and its reorganisation -a.s the State Forest Service the following year, a marked change wa.s wrought. The Dominion now ba-s a definite national forest policy, with it-s main objectives set- down thus:

The development of an economic policy of New Zealand timber for New Zealand people, ensuring ample timber-supplies for the Dominion by the management of the forest domain on a sustained yield basis.

Regulation of -stream-flow, conservation of water-supplies, and -maintenance of climate '.stability through protection forests. Restoration' of denuded forestlands to a timber-production basis. Dedication of all the national forest resources -as 'State forests.

It- is quite easy to have policy v without -achievement. Some parties and l movements in this queer old world of ours are iso overcome by .the dazzle of their own policy that they never get any further. Standing in openmouthed admiration *of their plans, they quite forget to begin building. Not iso with the State Forest /Service. In each year of late it has surpassed its previous best, and the fact that almost eleven thousand acres were planted last year, as compared with less than fourteen, hundred in 1921, speaks for itself. There are now over sixty thousand acres of .State plantations in New Zealand, while the total of State forests and forest reserves that the Service has under its care is more than eleven, thousand square miles. But the activities of the Forest Service are not restricted to the planting of exotic trees; in it. is vested also the oversight o-f our remaining native bush. Except the spectacle of wasted and broken humanity presented by the children’s ward of vsome hospitals, it- would he difficult to imagine a more pathetic sight than the thousands of acres of our New Zealand! forests needlessly sjwept by fire, and extending their bare, blackened arms to Heaven in a pitiful cry of distress. In bush country fire is a demon indeed. Some areas that were heavily wooded fifty years ago are producing to-day m milk more than they could ever produce in timber; but iso much of our hillcountry that has been burned is overrun with bracken and Californian thistle. The story of that country is a tragedy; it is one of the duties of the Forest Service to see that the future history of our New ZeaJla.nd bush is free of tragedy. Then, in the third main sphere of its usefulness, the Service is working with an eye on the four million acres of fern ana scruD, to-day wholly unproductive +o the country, but 'highly suited lor afforestation. Some day, perhaps, tnc greater part of that will be planted; that will be a record to be proud of. But a very small part of the planting can be done by the State. Id is on private landowners that the actual responsibility must fall; and to them the Forest Service extends its fullest help. In addition, to it,* advice to “Plant trees and grow money,” its nurseries have raised a million and a quarter trees in the past twentyseven years. Now these are be-iug sold to the public at cost price, and the expert opinion of State Forest officers is available to every man who contemplates planting. If there is one thing 'lacking in the splendid effort- being' made to atone for the mistakes of ttie past, it is thv observance of Arbor Diay in the schools-. Thi-s lia.s ralien away of recent year®. When it is -shall have been fully -restored to its place, and the wisdom of choosing a tree for a friend shall have been implanted m every child heart, there should be less fear of the future bringing a timber famine to this country.