NEW ZEALAND'S TIMBER RESOURCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13649, 17 January 1908, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND'S TIMBER RESOURCES.

Our timber resources are rapidly receding before the advance of settlement, and for future years a local scarcity of timber is generally predicted. Two years ago the chief forester estimated that New* Zealand was using 13 times as much timber per annum as the artificial State forests could produce per annum when mature, 40 or 60 years hence. . At the pit-sent time about 6810 acres of trees have been planted by the Government, .with a total of just over 15 million trees. The extension of the area, largely by means of prison labour, is proceeding at the rate of not more than live million trees on 1800 acres per annum, and greater activity amid well •be displayed if necessary. A great part of the labour of tree-planting is done during the winter months, when the demaud for labour on ordinary farms is least acute, and the work is such as could fluctuate with varying supplies of labour without damage to stock. In providing wages for unemployed in this way to give them a mere start, the country would have the satisfaction of knowing that it was accumulating a source of much revenue in the years to come. The chief forester has estimated the yield of milling timber from the artificial State forests, when mature, at about 20,000 ft per annum per acre. The value at present market prices, when milled, works -out at over £100 per acre per annum.