FORESTS AND EMPIRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23857, 11 July 1939, Page 5

FORESTS AND EMPIRE

In spite of.the increasing use of substitutes, timber and. wood pro-, ducts still remained among .the most important natural commodities in the world, said the Duke of Kent in his presidential address to the Empire Forestry Association. This was borne out by the fact that in 1937 imports into Britain, valued at nearly £62,000,000, exceeded those

of any* previous year since 191ft-2Q.' %Wood remained one of the iridispenisable .articles; of. mankind; ..as soon as new .substitutes were ..found new uses ■ for timber were Forestry was. not concerned alone. With the supply of timber and other 'products. l Among its most important benefits was the prevention of erosion and the regulation of stream flow. History abounded in examples of the disastrous results from the destruction of forests. The ancient Empire of Persia, which relied on

Mesopotamia for most of its revenue, » owed its fall primarily to the moval of '.the-forests on the hills, resulting iin the destruction pf the magnificent irrigation work' 6ti the Tigris and. the Euphrates and the. conversion of Mesopotamia ihto a desert. . The fall of Babylon' might have been due primarily to the same cause, and countless other cases could be traced,m cation and ■loss of, watef-control,, due,' mainly: to the destruction of .'forests.