KAURI FORESTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23123, 23 August 1938, Page 8

KAURI FORESTS

An optimistic account of the present condition and future prospects of various North Auckland kauri forests is given in an official statement released by the Prime Minister yesterday. The probable response of the kauri to forest management, and its regeneration prospects, have been the subject of a good deal of argument in the past. The State Forest Service has, however, declared for some time in favour of systematic silvieultural treatment. The official attitude has been summed up as follows: —"The more recent examinations and inspections of kauri forests indicate beyond all possible doubt the feasibility, not merely of preserving to posterity those few magnificent monarchs which the State Forest Service guards in its forests as national monuments, but also of maintaining the kauri forests in full vigour of growth to yield an everlasting supply of this world-famous wood." There is a very specific declaration of faith, which is elaborated in the statement just issued. The remaining kauri forests are to be not merely show pieces, visited by sight-seeing tourists or New Zealandcrs wishing to get acquainted with the tree which was once the chief glory of much of the north; they are to be sources of first-class timber and of wealth in perpetuity. Both sentiment and business sense should make every New Zealander hope that this optimism is well-founded. Exploitation of the kauri in the past has been a ' sorry tale of wastefulness and of blindness to future needs. It is late in the day to turn to a different policy, but it should not be too late. This effort to utilise and at the same time conserve the remaining stands of kauri deserves a thorough trial, if only to compensate for the errors and omissions of the past.