FORESTRY.

Northern Advocate, 28 September 1918, Page 2

FORESTRY.

In Thursday's issue we were able to publish a very interesting section of a lecture given to the Forestry League by Mr D. E. Hutchings, I.F.S. There has been a growing recognition during recent years of the necessity for attention being given to the forest and waste lands of New Zealand. Large areas of splendid timber land have been laid waste by the settler and sawmiller, and a great portion of what man has spared has suffered destruction by fire. The result is that the Dominion will be face to face in a few years with a serious timber shortage. Indeed, the position is even acute in some portions of the country at the present time and the cost of timber has risen to such an extent that house-building has reached a stage when persons of small means have to hesitate before attempting to provide themselves with a home.. Warnings through the press and good advice given by experts, however, have prevailed to a certain extent, and the creation of a Forestry Department promises better attention to this important matter in future. It would probably not be fair to condemn Government for complete disregard of the re-afforestation question. Good work has certainly been done i:i the King Country and other places where the opportunity has presented itself for activities. But only the fringe of the great task has been touched and before the best results can be attained it will be necessary to develop a thoroughly comprehensive plan of operations for the whole Dominion. One of the first steps which Government is called upon to take is the recognition of the fact that it does not pay to have spaces in the Government estate. Hundreds of thousands of acre l ; in Mew Zealand are at present lying idle; in fact, they are in a worse state than that of pure unproductiveness, for they harbour noxious weeds which do almost irreparable damage to adjacent lands. A progressive Government would never be satisfied with such a state of things. .An energetic effort should be made to bring these waste spaces into productivity and it has been proved, without doubt, that a policy of afforestation would pay handsomely. But it is not only in timber trees that good work could be

accomplished. Look at the vast areas in the North which could be reclaimed from the wilderness if

Government chose to precede set-

tlement by breaking in the poorer land and planting orange, lemon, other fruit and nut trees, etc. In a few years time such work would bring in a substantial return and the farms could be easily leased or otherwise disposed of to returned soldiers or other settlers. With such a start from Government much of the so-called waste and poor land in the North could be made to" "blossom like the rose." This scheme is not Utopian. It could be accomplished by any prosaic Government which had the business enterprise to set about developing its assets. In the North, especially, where the climate is generally so mild that almost any plant will thrive luxuriously, there should be a big field for profitable enterprise and we cannot too soon realise that a source of vast potential wealth is being neglected.