FORESTRY COMMISSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15249, 12 March 1913, Page 9

FORESTRY COMMISSION.

NEED FOR AFFORESTATION. » - EXPORT OF WHITE PINE. I 1 1 i 3 [bt TELEGRAPH —muss' ASSOCIATION.] i Doned'ik, Tuesday, k Before the Forestry Commission to-day, • Mr. Alexander Bathgate strongly ,urged k irrigation of Otago Central and extensive ) plantations as shelter belts in Molyneaux Valley, Strath-Taieri, and on the exposed 5 coasts of the North Island, citing the j coastline at Hawera as a locality where a shelter belt is much needed. The financial basis of afforestation, he said, Bhould bo put on a sound footing, so that the work t of planting should be carried on . irrespec- . tive of Government changes or financial ; stringency. The Government should ap- > point a forestry expert. 5 The president of the Acclimatisation! f Society declared' that it would be detri- . mental to afforestation if deer were given > unrestricted areas. Where they encroached on young plantations they should be re- ' duoed by shooting. ' t The Builders' Association expressed a , strong opinion that afforestation is urgently required and of vital importance to the prosperity of the Dominion, also the / opinion that - the matter was of the '• utmost importance. The reafforestation, of 1 .land should be carried out in a more vigor--1 ous manner than in the past, and special * consideration ought to be given to suitable building timbers. A* large area of the > Middle Island could be planted without I encroaching in any way on land suitable ' for agriculture. |, The commission inspected some butter boxes which had been imported from tha , Baltic, at a cost of Is Id, as against Is " 8d for locally-made boxes. . A discussion ' took place on timber for butter boxes, | during which it was stated that Australian , boxes were made almost exclusively of • white pine. Mr. J. R. Scott, • secretary : of the South Island Dairy Association,, * stated that his association had for years | been asking the Government an ext port duty on white pine. i This concluded the Dunedin sittings of the commission. > 1 ■—