NEW ZEALAND FORESTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3755, 2 March 1926, Page 75

NEW ZEALAND FORESTS.

AN EXPERT’S TOUR. DUNEDIN’S PLANTATIONS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, February 25. The first occupant of the Chair of Forestry at the Auckland University College, Professor H. 11. Corbin, has just returned from a trip of nearly four weeks’ duration through the South Island.' He made it for the‘purpose of gathering first hand information about the southern timber industry and the development of afforestation. “New Zealand is a magnificent forest country” he said in an interview. “Many of the forests remind me very much of those in the Himalayas. Timber milling is a much simpler matter than it is in Australia. There is a better stand to work upon, and the timber is very much more tractable and easier to saw than the hardwoods on the other side. All the forestry men 1 met on my trip were of a very fine type, and I was much impressed by their keenness.” Asked about tho working of the native forests Mr Corbin said he recognised the need of carefully preserving them. At various places he had seen good examples of regeneration after the timber had been cut. lie had been struck by tho southern beech forests which yielded very fine timber indeed. While in Dunedin he had been shown the City Council’s plantations, which were under tho control of Mr David Tannock. There good work was beinv done and the methods had been progressively improved as the result of experience. He had also visited the State plantations at Tapanui and Hanmer, and those of the Selwyn plantation board. Regarding the planting of trees by farmers, Mr Corbin said he had seen a number of farm wood lots. It appeared to him that many landholders had gone ahead without knowledge of the beat methods of planting and tending and there was need of more instruction. Some of the plantations in

Southland were now practically mature and problems of cutting, marketing, and replacement ought to be considered. The professor was in the Ashburton district soon after tbe recent fires. “The damage to the plantations need never have occcurred if the ordinary methods of forest protection had been followed when the trees • ere planted, and afterwards,’ he said, “with a proper firebreak and the regular clearing of the grass from under the trees at the margin there should be no danger from grass fires. That is if the lower branches of the trees have been correctly trimmed. Even if the burning matter gets on to the forest floor it simply smoulders among the needles and can be raked out. If a grass fire advances before a high wind, the procedure is to water the ground in front of it with spray carts which are provided with special sprays and pumps. Then when the fire reaches the watered area it goes out. If any of the trees should catch fire at the tops, pumps are able to deal with them. This method of protection has been most successful in Australia.” The Ashburton fires, he added, were an example to the Dominion, as they showed that playing at forestry was no good.