OUR TIMBER SUPPLIES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVII, Issue 141, 17 June 1913, Page 4

OUR TIMBER SUPPLIES.

It is pleasing to note that at least two local bodies in Marlborough have come to recognise the importance of afforestation, and have resolved to take practical steps towards giving effect to that recognition. We refer ] to the decision of the Wairau and Omaka Road Boards to share the cost of planting a number of gum and pinus insignis trees in the vicinity of the Omaka bridge near Renwick. This is a step which might very well be followed by every local authority in. the district. The question of timber supplies is going to be a very serious one for New Zealand before many years have passed. The country's forests are rapidly being felled, while the amount, of planting to replace the fallen monarchs of the tush is practically a negligible quantity. Unless something be done, and done without delay, it will be only a matter of a short time when there will bo no timber at all—or only very little. The consequences could not fail to be positively disastrous. Forests play a very important part in the distribution of rainfall. Statistics could be quoted showing that the quantity of rain recorded in the same locality has been considerably less after the bush has been felled than before the sawmills commenced operations. In certain portions of the Dominion there is none too much rain, and if all the timber disappears settlers in these localities will inevitably suffer. There is also the question of the supply of timber for commercial purposes. Not only in New Zealand but all over the world men who are in a position to form an accurate estimate of the prospective supplies are becoming anxious as regards the future. In Canada, for instance, experts express the opinion that the forests will all be cut out in thirty or forty years, even although the demand should not greatly increase in the meantime. In the United States, too, alarm is felt at the rapid denudation of the forests; while Franoe and Germans' have both embarked on a judicious system of afforestation in order _ to guard against the threatened famine. In the last issue of the New Zealand Year Book the Under-Secretary for Lands, writing on the subject of i timber supplies and basing his obseri vations/on an estimate prepared in ; 1909, says:—"The indigenous forests iof New Zealand will not cope with the full demand for sawn timber for a period longer than from 35 to 40 years," even allowing for the importation of a certain quantity from | abroad. He goes on to assert, how- ■ ever, that "the supply of eucalyptus from Australia, and pine from Siberia, and Manchuria, and possibly from i Korea, together with the Douglas fir I from Western Canada, will, for 'generations to come, satisfy to a very large ext-ent the continuous demand for sawn timber in New Zealand." j ,- This might be all very well if New Zealand were the only country which ! would need to draw on these supplies; j but just when this country finds it i necessary to go on to the foreign* j markets other countries will be turning their eyes in the same directions, and the result will be an enormous rise in prices. How different would ! be the case if, instead of having to buy in the lean yeans. New Zealand were in the position of being able to sell! How fortunate for the Dominion if, ever since the first years of settlement, for every tree felled another had been planted to take its place! But it is no use crying over , spilt milk. "What needs to be done now is to take immediate steps to ensure -judicious and continuous planting of. quick-growing trees which will to some extent compensate for the loss of the fast-vanishing native timber. The z-eward may not be j secured by the persons who plant the trees; but their children and their children's children will reap the benefit. Too milch praise cannot be sriven to Messrs G. Harris, of Blenheim, and J. A. Lambert, of Kaituna, who have recently, in our correspondence columns, set forth many facts in connection with the timber »roblem. It is earnestly to be hoped that their arguments will bear fruit. We are, indeed, informed on very good authority that one large landowner has expressed his intention, i j now that the urgency of the matter j has ..been brought home to him, of j planting forty acres* of trees for the j i benefit of his children. This is an ! example that others—many others— should follow. It'is a form of invest- ! ment which will give a magnificent I Tvvfciirn.