OUR FUTURE TIMBER SUPPLY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4513, 14 November 1901, Page 7

OUR FUTURE TIMBER SUPPLY.

(By James Freyberg.) The reckless haste with which the land hag been cleared of the most valuable crop it will ever carry is now producing the inevitable result. Timber, recently burnt as worthless, has become so scarce and dear that, unless speedy remedial measures are taken, it will soon be a serious question how to house the coming generations or provide material for the wood working community. Already there is a marked decrease in building operations, owing to the heavily increased cost, although the sawmitier and merchant are not receiving a fair return for their capital employed. Two courses are open, first, importing timber from other countries, secondly, replanting our own valuable forest tree s on a scientific system. Importing will not help the colony much, as the cost of timber will be considerably greater than heretofore, and the class of wood that might bo imported is not suitable for oUr climate, neither would it be durable. Replanting, therefore, becomes a stern necessity that has got to be faced, and common sense suggests planting New Zealand trees instead of the timber indigenous to the north of Europe. Our totara, red pine, and white pine are proved valuable timbers, suitable in every respect to our climate; and they are the foundations upon which much of our prosperity depends. Kauri, alas, may be dismissed as a portion of our wealth that will disappear for ever very shortly, as it takes over a thousand years to come to maturity, theretore, replanting the finest wood in the world is out of the question. Totara, our most valuable timber, fortunately grows with a wild and rapid luxuriance in certain favoured spots, enclosed by a line drawn across the map from Napier to north of the Patea' River; and another line a little north of Poverty Bay, right across the North Island. This favoured zone is the home of the totara, and here it grows with rnree times the rapidity obtained in the South Island. Forty or fifty years’ growtn in this district will produce a fairly marketable timber. Of course, the trees will be small, but if a succession of plantations are provided, then larger timber will be obtained in rapid succession. The important fact about totara is that small cuttings, which a boy could take from the trees in May, will produce 75 per cent, of young trees the following year; and if this district is planted cy convict labour, according to my suggestion, we shall soon prpduce all of that timber New Zealand 1 will require. It is absolute waste of time planting European trees, such as larch, Scotch fir, etc., in this district. They w’ili grow, no doubt, but the timber produced will be valueless, and never can take the place of eiir beautiful indigenous woods. Nature seems to have pointed to the totara zone in the North Island as the proper spot to establish nurseries for the growth of young New Zealand trees of every description, that from thence they may be taken and transplanted all over the colony; but the key to the position is the employ, ment of convict labour, under skilled men, from the very beginning, as the necessary work will thus be comparatively inexpensive, and really beneficial to the prisoners and the community at large.