BRITAIN AND AMERICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19027, 26 May 1925, Page 8

BRITAIN AND AMERICA.

Tho fundamental contrast between tho economic and industrial positions of a group of States that are united economically and of an Empire without a settled and coherent industrial policy can be seen in tho records of American trade, says Engineering. The United States is more than ever a mighty factor and a formidable competitor in all tho markets of the world. But great as is its .export business, and keen as its manufacturers are in pushing it, the amount of its export sales is trivial relatively to its total production. The prosperity of tho country depends littlo on the conditions that prevail in foreign nations. Its industrial welfare is based on the enormous market provided by the varied wants of its 110,000,000 people, distributed among 48 sovereign States, unseparated by any regional or other barriers within, but strongly protected by tariff barriers against outside competition. With this basis its manufacturers arc able to dispose of their surplus in export markets, shading their scalo of production according to the demands of foreign customers, but maintaining uninterrupted prosperity by internal trade. The - neglect to have constructed such a market out of the material in out hands explains most truly the hardship that Britain is undergoing in discharging our war obligations. The most direct remedy will be that all countries and parties within tho Empire shall agree on permanent and effective measures, whereby such a market shall bo created and maintained for the mutual benefit of tho States within which it is constituted. FORESTRY IN BRITAIN. During the five years of its existence tho British Forestry Commission has developed a large number of afforestation schemes up and down the country. The most extensive of the commission's 35 undertakings is on tho borders of Norfolk and Suffold, where an area of 26,000 acres is growing a variety of trees of which the bulk arc conifers. The land on which these trees are being reared was, until the commission took it over, almost wholly derelict. Since the afforestation operations were begun unemployment in the district concerned has vanished, and a largo body of men has found work in planting, tending, cleaning and cutting trees. Typical examples of what is being done are to bo found in mountainous regions, where much of the high land has not been developed in any way because of common rights and the rights of parishioners and local authorities. Tho farmer has had tho right to send a certain number of sheep up the side of the unfenced mountain for grazing. The land has remained not only untenable by anybody but tho flockowncr, but also unproductive in the best sense. Elsewhere huge tracts of farm land have been denuded of the local population by the general migration thereabouts to the mines, and before trees could bo grown a certain amount of very careful negotiation has been necessary. The method of procedure is that the commission abstains from taking for afforestation any land that has another real economic value. When a suitable site has been found it is thoroughly surveyed and its resources are reported upon. Next an area of at least, 1000 acres is leased or purchased. Then it is demonstrated to the local population how greatly to their advantage it is that the land should produce something rather than nothing, and how by making it product ive, employment is created. Then planting is begun over 10 per cent, of the area every year. To each small farmer in the area there is thereby guaranteed 150 days' work annually. The actual land is leased or purchased according to whatever arrangement may be made between the commission and the owner. The general policy of the commission is to take steps to enable the farmer to increase the richness of his fenced land, so that he no longer needs to use the unfericed areas for grazing; thus by handing over the latter for purposes of afforestation his actual loss is nil, while he stands,to benefit by the increased means of employment created.