NATIVE FORESTS

Otago Witness, Issue 3313, 12 September 1917, Page 7

NATIVE FORESTS

DURATION OF TIMBER SUPPLIES. NEED FOR ECONOMY. Tho duration of timber supplies Is dealt with in tho report of native forests written by Mr E. Phillips Turner. Mr Turner states that without a survey it is impossible to givo the area of land carrying commercial forest, nor, except in the case of kauri, can moro than a guess be made of the amount of the various milling timbers that our forests contain. Kauri is our most valuable milling timber, but if the present annual rate (53,000,000 ft) of cutting is continued our supply will not last moro than seven years. Tho largest output of timber is from the Auckland land district, but it is estimated that at tho past rato of conversion tho present stand of all timbers in that district will not last 20 years. In the Taranaki and Hawke's Bay districts there are only a few_ small areas of milling forest left, whilst in the Wellington land district the milling forest, which is confined to tho Waimarino, will last little more than a decade. In the South Island there is no milling forest loit in tho Canterbury land district. In Nelson and Marlborough the area is very small, and in tho Otago district the milling forest produces scarcely enough timber for tho present local consumption. In Southland there is still a fair area of milling forest, but the Commissioner of Crown Lands estimates that the red pine will bo exhausted in about 28 years, and the white pine in about 16 years. This estimate" does not, however,, allow for the largely increased demands on Southland forests, that are not plentiful, but occur sporadically. In tho forests birch is plentiful, but being what is technically termed a hard wood, it cannot fully take the place of soft woods. The largest forest of commercial timber is now in Westland, but the commissioner for that district estimates that the milling timbers (rimu and white pine) will; at the present rate of cutting, last only about 20 The great expansion that has occurred in recent years in the dairy and fruit industries, together with the great demand that there has been in Australia for our white pine, has caused heavy cuttings to be made of this timber. The time is at hand when the white pine scattered in our mixed timber forests will be insufficient to supply the demand. Puriri and silver pine, both so valuable for railway sleepers, have almost gone, and their place is now being taken by imported Australian hardwoods or ferroconcrete. Except in the case of hardwoods, the exhaustion of the supply of one kind of timber usually results in an increased use of other supplies of an inferior timber, or in the importation of a foreign timber technically as useful, but generally moro expensive. From the foregoing it will be seen that our supplies of milling timbers are less than has generally been estimated, that they are being rapidly used up, and that great care ancl economy must be exercised m the management pf our remaining forests.