NEW TREE-PLANTING AREA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19299, 12 April 1926, Page 8

NEW TREE-PLANTING AREA

The announcement that an area of some 10,000 acres in the Tliverhead district is to he transformed into a State plantation involves an important extension of afforestation activity. Various representations urging the suitability of the upharbour land for this purpose have been advanced from time to time. It is evident that both Lands and Forestry Departments agree with the contention, since the one has relin- ■ quished so considerable a block, and ; the other decided upon larger-scale operations of the nature described. But apart from the basic question of the quality of the soil, there are other notable features about the selection of this district for plantations. It is close to deep water, a condition bearing directly on the problem of transport, which must always take important rank in the question of marketing timber. As the Minister has said, if there is to be an export trade in exotic timber, it should bo grown close to the port if possible. To establish the forest near Auckland, moreover, is to have it close to a great centre of population whero the demand for timber must always be active. These possibilities affect the time, still comparatively far distant, when the trees will reach mil lab le size. Long before then some profit should come from the plantations. When thinning becomes necessary, there will bo forest products available. If poles and firewood ' cannot be profitably marketed in Auckland from a district so close at hand, then surely they never can bo elsewhere. That is why, other conditions being assured, there promiso to be such excellent prospects before the plantation flhorfiyto beeommcnced.