FOREST TIMBER SUPPLY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18680, 9 April 1924, Page 7

FOREST TIMBER SUPPLY.

THE PLANTING OF TREES. USE OF EUCALYPTUS. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWS CO-RESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON, Tuesday The attention of Mr. Mcintosh Ellis, head of the New . Zealand. Forest Service, who has just returned from a visit to Australia, was drawn to a statement in a Sydney newspaper that New Zealand was paying more attention to the afforestation of Australian trees than was being paid in Australia, No surprise was evinced by Mr. Ellis at the statement. "It is quite probable," he said, "that more eucalyptus is planted and propagated in New Zealand for commercial purposes than in the whole of Australia. In the matter of coniferous trees New Zealand plant* three times as much. The amount of pine plantation in Australia is negligible, and wind-breaks established by farmers are practically non-existent. _ In New Zealand these things are particularly emphasised. The latest statistics of the department disclose that tie number of trees privately planted is 12 times what it was only four years ago. Natural conditions are, of course, superior in Now Zealand and this, with the fact that the forest sense of the people is more defined, probably accounts for the difference." Another factor accounting for the smaller participation in the growing of soft wood trees in Australia, Mr. Ellis added, was the fact that the great bulk of their supplies of soft woods were imported from the Baltic and Pacific states. It was cheaper to purchase Oregon pine from Washington and British Columbia than it was to exploit- the forests in the outlying portions of Australia.