THE NEW FORESTRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18857, 9 May 1923, Page 4

THE NEW FORESTRY

TO THE EDITOB. Sib, —The removal of the State Forestry Department for this island from Tapanui to Christchurch aroused in mo a desire to place on record the work of tho last 2o years in connection with new forestry m this dominion. New Zealand was governed by statesmen at one period of its existence, anci an Act was passed to the effect that revenue derived from our forests, including kauri gum, should bo set aside lor replanting and the establishment of new forests. Needless to say, for many years this revenue was collected and diverted by various Finance Ministers to illegal channels. Captain Cook discovered these isles from north to south better clad with forests than any other part of the world he visited. He obtained supplies of new spars in what is now Auckland Province, at the Bay of Islands, aiid described them as first class. The whalers of the past century had a similar tale to tell about tho wonderful kauri pine. In tho first half of the last century British and American whaling craft were seldom absent from the Bay of Islands. About 1636 Australian craft from Hobart and Sydney came to the south after seals and whales, making their headquarters at Queen Charlotte Sound and Akaroa. In Otago and Sonthland the main rendezvous wore Moeraki, Waikouaiti, Port Chalmers, Taieri Mouth, Port Molyneux, Tautuku, Toi Tois (mouth of Mataura River), Bluff, Riverton, and Stewart Island. In most of these ports seamen could obtain spars and firewood—a. great desideratum in those days of sailing vessels. Dr M‘Nab fully describes the work of the whalers and early-duy sealers around the South Island. He had intended also to describe the north as well, especially Russell, but for his untimely death. His principal hook, “Old Whaling Days,” has • become a classic and should bo on the library of anyone interested in tho early history of New Zealand, with its companion volume on the early days of Southland —Murihiku, as the southern province was first styled. Having endeavoured to show , how well Now Zealand was endowed naturally withforests, it is well to remember that only some three-quarters of a century have elapsed‘since tho white men came to . oust tho Maoris from their home. ‘ln the early forties there was an influx to Auckland, m 1848 came the turn of Otago, and in. 1800 that of Canterbury. In tho short period that has elapsed pit-sawyers, sawmills, and the firestick have nearly exhausted our supplies. The noble kauri has gone, excepting on a few preserved plots. The beautiful pines—rod, white, and black—with their lovely foliage, are almost things of the past, with many other noble trees that were a dream to, gaze upon in their prime. Settlers after grass were given land to cultivate on the condition that they burnt olf tho timber. To think that such vandalism should not only have been permitted but been forced on the people in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries of civilisation and prok Pino ; forests in the North Island that would have supplied butter boxes for centuries went un in smoke fit the end or the last century. At Gatlins some small, area was burnt out, but the climate did not suit conflagrations. New forestry operations, as worked in the past, only account for 5,000,000 seedlings a year. According to the late Chief Forester, 13 times that quantity will be needed to fill the bill once tho rapidly diminishing New Zealand forests are finally exhausted. Good people say, “Import the necessary timber, ’ but other growing countries have pretty well exhausted their supplies. His Baltic regions are cut out : North American forests are doomed; Puget Sound is New Zealand’s present, source of supply for Oregon pine, hut that bountiful region of Douglas fir ;s on its last legs, and saplings are being cut fo fill the hills of lading. Australia may supply hard wood for many years, but even in the commonwealth lumbermen are talking of a shortage. Electric light linos are taking sapling poles of jnrrah so fast that forests cannot continue the supply for any great length of time. The New Zealand State Forest Department is making no effort whatever to produce telegraph or electric light poles in any quantity, and the country recently levied an import duty of 20 per cent, to add to their cost. Having pointed out, as statistics will prove, the almost total drying up of the source of our indigenous timber supplies, I shall endeavour to outline what the new forestry works have done for this country so far. In 1895 the Government set its forestry; machinery going by npnointing the late Mr H. J. Matthews, of Dunedin, as Chief Forester. He toured the dominion with tho purpose of selecting land for nurseries and forests and finally decided on Tapanui for the South'and Rotorua for the North and these establishments have stood' the test of 27 years’ ncutal work, the first sods being turned in 1896 at Tapanui. The late Chief Forester was an exceptional man who had been born in the business on his parents’ nursery. Ho had a natural bent for the work of reafforestation. He was well known in the city of his birth for his keen attention to general nursery work in his youth, and for his knowledge of ferns selected to procure the necessary plants for the New Zealand Exhibition Fernery in 1889-90. For this purpose he travelled extensively and scoured a unique collection. In addition, to his bent for exploration for trees, plants, ferns, etc., Mr Matthews was a practical cabinetmaker and timber worker. He collected specimens of wood from almost every known tree. For the last-named purpose he had at his parents’ nursery at Mornington a workshop with modern, up-to-date wood-working machinery, turners, lathes, etc. The residence at Mornington was largely furnished with artistic pieces made on the, premises from special timber collected by an ardent lover of native forests. Tho writer remembers that the appointment of Chief Forester was criticised in _ the Daily Times because the appointee was a wood worker as well as a tree grower. It must he said, however, in connection with the appointment of a man long dead that he had no equal in New Zealand or elsewhere as a forester first and as a cabinetmaker in his amateur capacity. The writer searched Great Britain in 19C6 e -- superior tree nurseries, and now forests in the Old Land, from county agricultural colleges in the south to the Dpk© of Sutherland’s forests in the far north, and found nothing to equal thl work of Mr Matthews. Mr R. G. Robinson, who followed the first 'forester as second chief, travelled in Great Britain amongst tree-growers in L 914, and will, I think, bear nut my statement. Mr Robinson should not have left the Government department but for tho parsimony of his inferiors. Ho wont Homo to insnoct Northern Hemisphere forestry, but his work was interrupted in August, 1914. whilst he was in tho South of France, and ho bad some difficulty in getting out on troop trains with so’diers hound for the Great War. Tie had, of course, to omit, Ge rman woods from his Jour, but the Huns’ methods are well known, and not applicable here except in one important feature, never to allow a forested area to decrease, but rather to increase the supplies. Government had. sent Mr Robinson, and he did splendid service until ho was stopped by war. Then it was demanded of him that he should pay nart of his own expenses. No wonder the Relwyn authorities secured one of the ablest foresters in the dominion, e"d tho Government lost a faithful, hardworking man of great .ability in the profession which, like Mr Goudie, of Rotorua, lie had learned at Japan under the first chief, Tho Morrison brothers and Mr David Buchanan, all leaders in the Forestry Department, were all punils and able workers under the man who made new forestry practicable under new conditions. The Government was not lavish in its. expenditure under Mr Reddon. and all hands, from tho chief downwards, had a struggle to make both ends meet. The wife of the chief gave I ova I service ns photographer. clerk, etc., without recompense. The chief had to supplement his paltry £250 a year by drawings on his private banking' account-. He loved the work, however, and. like a gallant soldier, died at his post in Auckland after n sudden seizure.—l am. etc.. W. Qttix.