AMERICA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 164, 9 July 1918, Page 5

AMERICA

INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION* CONGRATULATORY MESSAGES;. 'Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) WASHINGTON, July 7. Mr Lloyd George sent a message congratulating President Wilson on the ship launchings on July 4th. Mr Wilson, in reply, eerit the following message:—" Your personal telegram is most welcome and will give the greatest pleasure to those working to fill the sea with ships that by their numbers shall make the successful conduct of the war certain." President Wilson received cables from all parts of the world giving details of the celebrations of Independence Day. President Wi»on sent the following message to the Governor o'Australia 7 "The people of the United States send their warmest greetings to the people of Australia. They appreciate the sentiment contained in your messages, and express their pride in being associated with the gallant sons of Australia in the great struggle for light and liberty.

AMERICAN FORCES

NUMBER, IN FIRING LINE. 'Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) (Rec. July 9, 9 a.m.) • WASHINGTON, July 6. General .March {Chief of the Stale states that there were 251,000 United States troops in the firing line on Ist July. BRITISH RED CROSS FUND. SUBSCRIPTIONS EXCEED ELEVEN MILLION. (Außtralian and N.Z. Association.) ' (Rec. <fuly 9, 10.25 a.m.) K LONDON July 8. Subscriptions to the British Red Cross fund exceed eleven millions. AMATEUR BOLSHEVIKS. DISTURBANCES AT GLASGOW. t Australian and N.Z. Cable Araocia'. - (Rec. July 9, 12.55 p.m.) 1 LONDON, July 8. Several hundreds of,-self-styled Bol- ' sheviks in Glasgow created disorderly scenes, demanding the release of MacLean sentenced to five years for inciting Socialists. The Bolsheviks held nn trams, and attacked the drivers and conductors. ! The police quelled the disturbance.

DOMINION FORESTS

QUESTION OF CONSERVATION. VIEWS OF MR D. B. HUTCHINS. The question of timber conservation was discussed at the Northern Dairy Conference in -Auckland on June i, when, resolutions? were parsed arguing the OoveiV-nienit *° conserve timbers suitable for butter-boxes and to undertake measures for the reafforestation of the timber. Mr D. E. Hutchuis, F.IR.C.S., who was appointed by the Government to prepare a report on forestry in the Dominion, has written to the Herald on the subject, explaining that. a s lie ds not resident in Auckland, the report of the conference has only recently reached him. He writes : In his op'ening address alt- the Dairy Conference, the chairman, Mr A. Morton, said, "Even conservation of the remaining forests would only defer the crisis." That view looks on the native forests as a mine to be worked_out and destroyed. That view is neither practical nor scientific. It is not prat.tieal because in South Africa this class of forest has been worked and conserved for the last 35' years. 'lt as not .scientific, because the teachings of scientific forestry in Europe show that_ forest can be worked and continually improved in the working, provided the_ working is in the hands of ficicntincallytrained foresters. Forests_ in Central j Europe during a man's lifetime have ! had their value and yield no>t doubled !or trebled, but increased nine-fold.

FOREST DEMARCATION. To destroy good existing forests with one hand and to make new, sometimes inferior, forests with the other, is not reasonable. Poplar' generally wants good land. Good land and labour for planting are both costly in New Zealand. Insignis pine is. not equal to New Zealand white pine for butter-boxes. In South Africa recent- official trials have shown that insignia pine is unsuitable for butter-boxes. Reckless forest destruction—without the forest demarcation of other countries to settle whether land in each case is better for forest or for farming—has., got NewZealand into a .tiyht .corner just now. Indiscriminate forest destruction should be stopped at once, and l forest demarcation substituted ; followed by just saitch planting as may be necessary for the regeneration of the forests; and' just such planting as may be necessary to carry over, with inferiori but quickgrown insignia pine, till i supplies of good white pine from the native forests agaim become available. That period will vary from 20 to 60 or 80 years, according to the character of the forest. Where the forest has a good sxipply of immature timber, foresters would. ;taikie (another crop of /timber in 20 years or so. In saying this, I refer mainly to the white pine growing lira the "miixedi" forests: the pine on 'the swamps with forest demarcation would, nearly always go into farm land. But let us not forget that some of the finest white pine is in the ordinary mixed forest. The , tallest tree in New Zealand, of which the measurements' has beem accurately 'taken,, was a, white pine I photographed on the West Coast south of Hokitika, 210 ft total height. Of. course the practical working of the forest would mean more than simply thinning out the mature timber. It would mean organisation to ensure that •the forest timber regrowth . was not burnt, or grazed, or dominated by worthless trees and bushes; in other wortfe, it would mieaw fche, ordinary Forest Department of other countries. Such a Department might cost £IO,OOO or £15.000 a year. Would it be worth it? Where they have established such Forest Departments! in, Australia within recent years, they have paid for themselves several times over.. A Forest Department might taike the place of some of those redundant "Government jobs.," nay, whole iDepartments, that have grown up during-piping times of peace, Departments that are looked on i as- luxuries of administration in conn-' i tries that have fully organised Forest I Departments.

MEETING THE NATIONAL. DEBT. The waste and lose in the present working of the New Zealand . "bush*"is notorious. Though some £40,000 are being spent yearly on forestry in New Zea'-anid- this large' expenditure is stilj without the technical direction and control seen in other countries —Europe, America, India, Japan-, and now Australia. Where natural .'regeneration could not be obtained by the regulated thinnings of scientific forestry, there would have to be some interplaniting of native or of introduced trees, according to the circumstances of each ca.se: would that interplanting mean? Not the planting of from 20CO to 4000 ; trees per acre, with the risk attending each planting, of exotic spa:iesi, but, at the worst, 200-to 300 trees per acre. And behind this lies- the fact that simply to do as other nations and build up national forests, would eventually go far to liquidate the whole national indebtedness. My \ report on New Zealand' forestry, now being printed, shows that at- present pricefe. half a ■ miUlon. acres of restorable kauri foi'est would eventually pay oil possible charges onthe war debt; and half a million acres of restorable kauri forest could bo obtained, by a steadfast. policy for a few years of forest demarcation l and redemption. ;'.«.. ' It" is not realised what other countries ai-e doing in.-.forestry. Thus while New Zealand is spending some £40,000, a year on forestry without skilled direction. South Africa is spending £194,000 during 1917-18, and has- a fully organv ised Forestry Department, with fully trained —university menA-foresters directing the work. iSbuth Africa and Now Zealand' have about the same "white" population.