NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18088, 12 May 1922, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

NEW ZEALAND FORESTS.

The total area of New Zealand is 103,201 square miles, and at tho timo when organised European settlement was first started (about 1840) there were about 30,000,000 acres, or 45.4 per cent, of this area under forest, writes Mr. E. Phillips Turner, in tho Forest Magazine. Tho rapid advance of settlement (too often indiscriminate), tho operations of sawmills, and tho ravages caused by tho fires of kauri-gum diggers, mining prospectors, and other pioneers, have resulted in this area being rapidly reduced, so that it is estimated that tho remaining area of forest on all classes of land in New Zealand is only about 11,500,000 acres. The area of permanently reserved State forests is 1,668,319 acres, but there arc also 5,134,651 acres under provisional reservation. Until further surveys have been made tho area containing merchantable forest cannot bo safely stated. Thotyh the forest trees of New Zealand are 99 in number, thero aro but about 20 of them which are of value as timber trees; in fact, at present only six aro being used to any extent by sawmillers, and of these five are coniferous (softwood tim-' bers). There are already indications that the high prices and growing scarcity of many of our best timbers will bring about the use of many of those now neglected. From the point of view of timber supply tho most valuable forests are tho rimu matai-totara-miro forests of the central volcanic plateau of the North Island, and tho riinu-white pine-miro-matai forests of tho Western district of the South Island. These forests carry a stand of from 8000 to as much an 45,000 superficial feet per aero of these timbers, with an average of about 15,000 ft. to the acre. The kauri forests are unfortunately of very small area, but their royalty value p«r acre is probablv not less than £50. There are also milling forests with a light stand of mill ible softwoods in Southland, Otago and at different localities in the North Island. Tho southern beeches form largo forests on the axial ran go extending from the East Capo to Wellington, and they are also extensive in the South Island.

THE PRINTING INDUSTRY. Speaking at the annual dinner of the London Master Printers' Association, Mr. James MaoLeho.se (president of the Federation of Master Printers of Great Britain and Ireland) said that printing had transformed the work and tfie opportunities of the scholar and of every individual in the country. They were perhaps apt to think that because there were great libraries in the old days, and litera- ! ture and philosophy flourished so luxuri- ; antly, every citizen was a scholar or a poet. But it was not so. The inspiration and relaxation of literature wero confined to a narrow circle, and although there j were great libraries, access to them was I difficult. To-day the humblest scholar, | however abstruse his subjects, could feci ; that there was an open door to a great library awaiting him. That change was j due to the printing industry. While it j was true it had enormously multiplied the opportunities of reading, it was a very j interesting and difficult question whether , it had heightened the standard of litera- ; ture. They must always remember, when comparing standards, that the better literature had a longer life; the contemporary was apt to look it the very large , amount produced in t'he present day by | the printing press and to think that the general average was not high. They were apt to forget that the older time had verv inferior literature also, but in the waste of time only the great outstanding things remained.' ADVERTISING ON STAMPS. The übiquitous postage stamp 'has tTm largest sale of any printed paper, and often the suggestion has been made that the gummed side should be utilised for trade advertisement, writes Mr. Fred. J. Melville in the London Daily Telegraph. In the present state of the British Post Office the idea has been seized upon as offering a new source of revenue. The Postmaster-General has invited tenders for advertisements on the backs of postage stamps, and soon we may experience a tfirill as we post a letter on finding we have to moisten a slogan such as " Eveiy time vou lick a stamp think of s Fruit Jellies." The philatelist will regard the introduction of advertisements ar. a desecration of the little talismans that waft our letters with magic ease over land and sea. The general public, too, will not appreciate this forcing t>f advertisements almost, down their tviroats. Moreover, many largo firms, while expending vast sums on advertising their own commodities in the press and on hoardings, may have to mail their extensive correspondence with gratuitous advertisements of rival concerns. In New Zea land, however, the idea was put to a practical test in 1893, when a three year*contract was given to a firm in Wellington to utilise tho backs of stamps for advertising purposes. Most of the stamp denominations current at that period had letterpress or block advertisements on th<> underside. The heaviest users of these tinv advertisement spaces were Sunlight Soap Beecham's Pills, and Bonnington's Irish' Moss, but a few local firms paraded their perambulators, sewing machine*, carpets, waterproofs, painless extractions, and the magical properties of " a new cure for asthma, diphtheria, and croup." The contractors, Messrs. Truebridge, Miller. and Reich, found the venture unsatisfactory, and exercised their right of determining the contract at the end of tho first 12 months.

GERMANY AND FRANCE. Tho president of the Reparations Commission. M. Dubois, who is the French delegate, was recently entertained in Paris by the Union of Commerce and Industry, and in explaining the duties of the commission. stated that it was tho business of the Allied Governments to take the necessary steps to make Germany pay, " for she can and must pay." They should demand payment, M. Dubois concluded, having, if necessary, recourso to force, and ho added, "if Franco, which is tho greatest sufferer from the war, and whoso wounds are still blooding, cannot induce her allies to act with firmness, she is powerful enough to act alono, even if it should be by tho strength of/her gunß and bayonets." On the sjuno day tho German Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Ilathenau, addressed tho Reichstag on tho same subject. Ho said :—" Tho Reparations Commission's decision of March 21 was (he bitterest disappointment to In France the reins of power are held by a statesman of great experience and ruthless will power. M. Poincaro has taken up the fight against England, and, as was shown at Boulogne, not without success, since Boulogno meant tho reinforcement of the contention to prevent tho reparation question being discussed at Genoa. Supported by a strong Parliamentary majority, M. Poincaro began a policy which in a short time extended to all political theatres, not only as regards England, where Mr. Lloyd Georrre's star has begun to decline, but also in tho East, where military alliances and conventions grow in number daily. It is tragic that France, which is the strongest military Power in tho world, should bo guided in all her actions by fear of a German attack." The commission has proposed tho appointment of an international committee composed of " specialists of different countries, .including thoso not represented on tho Reparations Coinmission," to study the conditions in which Germany could contract a loan for reparation purposes, and tho .«j.ims which she could hope thus to procure during each of the next fivo years; the guarantees she could offer without unduly compromising the subsequent reparation payments, control aiitl management of tho revenues earfor the service of loans, and the relations which would exist between the German Government, the rppresentatives of tho lenders, and tho Reparations Com- [ mission.