RURAL TOPICS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1679, 4 May 1904, Page 64

RURAL TOPICS

(By “Ajor.”) ON THE WHOLESALE DESTRUCTION OF OUR NEW ZEALAND FORESTS. Tlio rapidity with which this colony is being denuded of its forests, and the likely consequences which must rebuilt therefrom under present conditions is alarming, and unless forest reforms are inaugurated speedily the timber famine and the certain other disasters set out dx my series of articles on this all-im-portant subject must come. Irrespective of the “thinnings” of our forests, which are used chiefly for fencing-posts, sleepers, anel other light timbers, we are cutting 261,500,000 ft per annum, and the four Government nurseries are onL making provision for a continuous supply of aboiat 14,000,000 superficial feet per annum. ; or, according to Mr H. J. Matthews, Chief Forester, about cno- „ nineteenth of the quantity at present being milled. This means that while New Zealand is being denuded of 20,000 acfds of forest, reckoned at 10,000 superfficial feet per acre, for our annual supply of 200,000,000 ft (during the last nine years), provision for the planting of only 700 acres, estimated to produce 14,000,000 ft in from sixty to one hundred years from the time of planting, has been marie. The gravity of the isituation, as shown from the foregoing brief mention, is quite apparent. But let ius look further. According to the best authorities, unless necessary provision by artificial planting be made, the forests of New Zealand will give out under sixty yeans. In order, therefore, to maintain the; present output of timber, from 13,000 to 14,000 acres would require to be planted annually. and to do that would necessitate multiplying the present number of our nurseries by about ten. And that is making no allowance for possible destruction by fires, the probable percentage of losses in artificial plantation, and other likely causes. By increasing the number of nurseries Government need have small apprehension as to costs, for the revenue derived from State forests and the expenditure on forestry operations, including management and supervision of State forests since 1896, has been profitable enough. The credit balance on State Forests Account at 31st March last was £49,011 13s 8d ; in round iwijnbe'fs, a profit of £7,000 a year, so that in the event of the State Forei-rts Branch of the Department of Lands and v Survey, which has the direction of forest tree planting, deciding to increase the operations of artificial planting in the manner indicated, aryl provided the expenditure. management, supervision, etc., were conducted on simitar linefe to those set forth in the balance of last March, then indeed would accrue a very V handsome profit to the State. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TIMBER INDUSTRY. As showing the importance of the timber industry, to the colony, it may be mentioned that the number of sawmills in operation in 1900, was 334, as against 299 in 1895. These employed 6,085 hands, paid £514,088 in wages, sawed 261,583,518 ft-. of timber, of the value of £971,048, and if to that be added £19,277, value of posts and rails, the ' • total value of all wood manufactures produce)! by New Zealand during .1900 is the veijy respectable figure of £1,268,689; or an increase during five ' years of £369,832. Of the total amount manufactured in 1900, one-fifth was exported, but wo imported timber which could well be grown, in the colony to the value of £IOO,OOO per annum. The value of timber exported from the oolony during thirteen years ended 1900 is £2,055,476, but as this is only about one-fifth of the value produced within the oolony, readers are given an idea of th enormous wealth we have; in our forests. Take the Wellington! province alone. It has been estimated by authorities . that out of 6,811, acres, the area comprising the Wellington land district, the forest and timber reserves afro only' one-thirteenth of the total area, or say 500,000 acres estimated to (yield an average of 20,000 Superficial feet of timber per acre. In the province of Auckland, home of the giant kauri, an approximate estimate of the kauri timber on Grown Lands is set down at 715,000,000 superficial feet Aon' native lands, at 540,000,000 superficial feet; on private lands, at 124,776,000 superficial feet ; or a total of 1,379,766,000 superficial feet. As 70,000,000f t t is the average annual output, unless tb,e .output be checked or the artificial plafitipg be increased, the forests of be exhausted inside of .twenty yejjtfs, and in a less time too, should the too probable fires • ’ get into them. In kauri forests the danger from fire i!s greater than that ' "likely to assail other New Zealand forests. No tree is mare susceptible to ~ fire than the kauri, the slightest scorch- . iojg of its roots being sufficient to move

fatal, and when fire attacks a kauri forest it generally "destroys hundreds of acres, .the gum of the trees being of such an inflammable nature. Kauri is the mast valuable timber New Zealand grows, therefore the protection of kauri forests .should he one of the most urgent matters requiring the attention of the Government. The destructive influence consequent on the indiscriminate clearing of fefretet lands, especially at the sources of rivers, is most disastrous. Remote history tells us that the Land of Canaan was ruined by the destruction of its forests. Spain, once noted for its salubrious climate and richness of soil, is now reduced to being one of the poorest of European countries, owing to the wholesale destruction of its once famous forests, whilst, many other old countries I could name have been ruined through similar causes. How much need, then for a good, bold schema of forest conservation P