FORESTRY PROBLEMS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 114, 10 April 1930, Page 2

FORESTRY PROBLEMS.

CONFERENCE AT NELSON. Per Press Association. ■ NELSON, April 9. Hon. W. B. Taverner, Commisrioner of State Forests, opened tho annual conference of executive officers of tho Forest Service at Nelson. Mr Taverner said that the country had entered upon the second phase of forestry history, namely, the replacement of the indigenous soft wood forests with exotic plantations, and to foresters this changing of the old order must be very interesting indeed. He had noticed in Nelson and Marlborough specimens of exotic trees evidently planted by-the pioneer settlers. These trees had attained a remarkable growth, and must bo of great interest, showing that the soil at Nelson was well suited for afforestation. The Minister referred to the presence at Nelson of the Cawthron Institute with its forest biological research station under the control of Dr. David Miller. This work he regarded as of national importance. The Minister also dealt with the depletion of the milling forests and the protection of forests, and paid a tribute to the high standard set by the Forest Service generally. The Director of State Forests, Mr Phillips Turner, in the course of his remarks, said tliat the aggregate area of New Zealand State plantations now reached 245,000 acreo of valuable timber trees, which was the largest area .of State-owned planted, forests in any one State in the British Empire. Not only had this huge work been accomplished, but they also could justly claim to have applied systematic and business management to their indigenous forests which, for tho most part, wore formerly under no management. Former sales of timber on an antiquated system had resulted in great waste anil national loss.

"We have under our oare about 7} million acres of indigenous forest,' 1 said Mr Turner. “This is a huge area, and many thoughtless persons claim that a large portion of these reserved lands should be opened up for settlement. From our practical experience in the field here and from the study of forestry and the forests of other countries, we know that these reservations contain only small fractious of land suitable for settlement, and that were the reservations removed fr%m the remainder and settlement allowed, the ultimate result would be disastrous, both from the nationil point of view and for tire individual. 1 ’