OUR NATIONAL FOREST

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10868, 7 April 1921, Page 6

OUR NATIONAL FOREST

GOVERNMENT PROCLAMATIONS. “'The Government has, by proclamation of large areas of provisional State forests, taken effective steps in the direction desired by the honourable member. Specific 'forestry legislation will be propo&d in ®fie second session of this year.” Such is the reply given by the Prime Minister to Colonel Mitchell's question : —(1) ‘‘Whatsteps axe the Government taking, if any, to prevent the appalling waste, in view of Sir David Hntchm’s calculations that 100,Q00 acres of rough land, which was pnee covered with valuable native bush, reverts to scrub, gorse, bramble, " and other noxious weeds each year, and] the wanton destruction by fire or irreplaceable forest going on all over the country, notably the extensive fires in the Murchison, Nelson, and other districts? (2) Whether, as the present measures on the statute-book do not give the State sufficient power to adequately control and protect our naiomal forest, it is the intention of the Government to bring down a measure next session that will d.o so?”

Out of 638 ships which entered the port of Montreal last year, 460 were British and 120 American. The total totmaee was 2,120,519, as compared with 2,041,638 in 1919.