STATE TREE PLANTING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20306, 13 July 1929, Page 13

STATE TREE PLANTING.

WORK AHEAD OF SCHEDULE.

NEW SCHEME PROPOSED.

A TEN YEARS' PROGRAMME.

[I!Y TKLtIGRArII. —SPECIAL REPORTER.] WELLINGTON, Friday.

As Uio present planting programme of tlio State Forest Service will be completed four years ahead of schedulo the Commissioner of State Forests, tlio Hon W. B. Taverncr, informed tlio House this afternoon that ho would shortly ho placing beforo the Cabinet recommendations for the inauguration of a ten years' planting programme, providing for tlio annual establishment of an area. Tlio Minister said the servico was at present working to a programme of establishing 300,000 acres by 1935, but owing to improved methods and tlio ability of afforestation work to absqrb a considerable number of men in the months when unemployment was troublesome, planting was so far ahead that at tho conclusion of tlio present season tho area established would approximate 138,000 acres. At the present rato of progress tho objective of 300,000 acres was expected to be reached by 1931. Future Requirements.

The most reliablo expert cstimato available indicated that New Zealand's native timber would bo practically exhausted by 1965, when tho total timber requirements for tho Dominion would bo about 700,000,000 board feet a year. Of this quantity State plantations wero estimated to produce 450,000,000 ft. a year, local body and private plantations 150,000,000 ft., indigenous forests, 50,000,000 ft., and importations (mainly hardwoods), 50,000,000 ft. It was further estimated that the State plantation yield referred to would coine from the 300,000 acres to bo planted by 1931. After emphasising that it would be tho Government's policy uot to plant trees on land where wool could be grown the Minister pointed out that there wero still some millions of acres which could not be used for any form of farming, and much of it could, by being used for afforestation, bo made both productive and capable of carrying a largo population, in addition to other advantages. Furthermore, there was every reason to expect that surplus softwood timbers could in future bo advantageously disposed of for tho production of paper and other materials mado from wood pulp Again, the peculiar suitability of afforestation as a means of absorbing surplus labour during tho winter must not be lost sight of. Ample Work for Department.

Tho Minister said careful consideration of those and other factors had enabled him to reach conclusions which he intended to express shortly in recommendations to tho Cabinet regarding the future policy of the service. "1 am not at the moment in a position to go into details," Mr. Tavcrner added. "1 may say, however, that my recommendations will be in tho direction of laying down a 10-years' planting programme, commencing from the date of attainment of the present objective of 300,000 acres, and providing tor the annual establishment of an area very much lower than at present. It must not be assumed that if these proposals arc adopted the activity of the department as a whole will be in any way lessened, for there is a wide, and as yet. practically untouched, field of work in the conservation and management of our nativo forests.

"I expect that tho result of my proposals, if adopted, would be that whereas the department's main activity at present lies in the establishment of exotic plantations, its attention after the completion of its present planting programme would tend to be engaged mainly in the conservation and scientific management of indigenous forests and the maintenance and management of the exotic plantations already existing,- with the establishment of fresh plantations as a more or less minor part of its work. Ihat state of affairs could he expected until tho time arrives when plantations have reached a stage of maturity at which the attention of the department would be required to be devoted largely to tho supervision of tho extraction and utilisation on a largo scale of tho timber so available." The Thinning Operations. The Minister intimated that lie was going into the question of thinning State plantations to ascertain approximately tho total sum involved in carrying out necessary work. Assuming the resulting timber could be sold there were definitely 16,000 acres, and in all probably 20,000 acres, in various plantations requiring treatment. In the absence of a market for the thinnings the loading of the cost of carrying out the operations might constitute an intolerable burden on tho plantations affected and seriously endanger their value as an investment of public moneys. The size of the problem was such that tho Minister intended to bring the, matter before the Cabinet and have it discussed as a matter of Government policy. In tho meantime, small scale thinning operations wero being conducted to establish the most economical method and to determine to what degree tho species in the congested areas should be thinned. Tho department would thus be in a position to proceed quickly when the work was attacked on a larger scale.