NATIONAL AFFORESTATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3768, 1 June 1926, Page 75

NATIONAL AFFORESTATION.

SIR FRANK HEATH’S REPORT TIMBER ANI) FUEL. Afforestation and the conservation of the national timber and fuel resources form the suoject of an extensive report in the recommendations presented to the New Zealand Government by Sir Frank Heath, K.U.B. (secretary of the Department oi Scientific and Industrial Research (England). Speaking of the problem of research in forestry and forest products ho says: For this a special institute should in my opinion be established in close relation to the Agricultural College and upon the same site. lhe need for economy both in expenditure and men calls urgently for this solution of a pressing and most important national problem At present there is no institution in New Zealand devoted to the study of silviculture in its two phases of (1) the life, history, regeneration and economic exploitations of the native bush, both trees, bushes and creepers, and (2) the atforesta lion of exotic trees. Work on forest products is being done for the forestiy authority at Auckland University College and at Canterbury College, Christchurch, but the Director of Forestry has earnestly recommended the Government to authorise the establishment as a forest products’ laboratory and a forest experimental station m the North Island. For exactly the same reasons a* those that apply to a Dairy Institute, forest product research should be related to the new University College and financed by contributions from the timber milling industry and by grants from tho central research organisation.

The question of forestry is referred to as a pressing and most important national problem. It is more than this. It is pressing and important for the Empire as a whole. Tho best authorities anticipate a serious world shortage of soft woods within the next 20 years, and Great Britain, which to-day is spending at least £40,000,000 a year on imported hers, needs the help of !he dominions and her colonies in substituting an Imperial for a foreign trade in this vital necessity of man. Substitutes for the present soft woods will have to be found and the present supplies greatly increased Unless it can become entirely self-sufficing, rising prices will affect the Dominion equally with the Mother Country, and if prices are high why should New Zealand neglect the lev-' lopment of a new and profitable market overseas? Moreover effective forestry, if it can be pursued as it. is now pursued in France. Germany, Norway and Sweden, means in the opinion of competent judges a new and large population on the land, much greater in numbers to a given area than can be the case with the pastoral industry or farming on a large scale. There are undoubted difficulties in the formulation of a forest policy on a big scale, but the promise and possibdities appear to me to be so great, while there are so many difficulties to be con sidered, that I venture to trespass to this extent beyond the strict, terms of my order of reference and to recommend that the Government sh uld invite the best forester it can secure to visit New Zealand, to survey the whole present position both as regards the native hush and the planted areas, including State and private enter prise, and to report upon the possibilities of a big forward movement. Should he recommend modification in the present policy I suggest that the Government should then appoint a strong committee, including the director of forestry, to ore pare a plant of forest developme and to consult with the British Government for the inipation of a forest settlement scheme. It should be observed that forestry is able to absorb usefully healthy men of greater a're than agriculture can, unless they have already been used to country life. There is one other branch of work affecting the primary industries of mining which appears to be of great importance to the secondary industries and to the nation as a whole. I refer to the study of the natural fuels of New Zealand and of possible synthetic fuels. Some work is already going on in this field, notably by the Government analyst on briquetting, and at Canterbury College, Christchurch, but there is a real necessity F or better know ledge, not only of the extent but even more of the characteristics of New Zea , land's fuel resources, which the interest shown in the development of electric power is tending to obscure Tt must he remem bered that the expenditure of heat in in dustry is on the average much high, r than the expenditure of power, and that electricity is an expensive source of heat, which is not economically justified unless the factory i<3 putting out products of very high grade or requires the apolioation of heat under very accurate control or in closelv defined areas. A complete chemical and physical survey of the coal seams needs to be made with the assistance of the owner and in accordance with the procedure worked out by the Fuel Research Station attached to the Department of Science and Industrial Research at Home. The results of this survev will give indications as to the coals which should first be studied with a view to more economical use and better treatment. In this my department at Home is willing and anxious to assist. They would place the resources of tho Fuel Research Station at the disposal of the New Zealand Government for Jarge scale experiments on consignments "of coal in return for actual out-of-pocket expenses, and thus save the Dominion from the expense of erecting o large station. But there should be facilities here for the necessary preliminary work to be carried on in close agreement with the methods successfully laid down at Home. It is now certain that it will be possible to produce, by suitable treatment, fuel. oils, and spirits from coal distilled at temperatures lower than those used in gas works or coke ovens, with the concurrent production of a soft and smokeless coke that burns as easily in an open grate as raw coal. This work done at the Fuel Research Station needs repeating and probably modifying to suit New Zealand fuels, for any process that w'ould help to release the Dominion from entire dependence on imported liquid fuels is important, not only economically, but also from the point of view of defence. Accordingly I recommend that a committee be set up under the research organisation to prepare a plan for the systematic study of the Dominion fuel resources in consultation with my department at Home;

that it prepare estimates of cost for submission to the central organisation, and that meantime a young man of science should be attached as soon as possible to tho staff of the Fuel Research Station at Greenwich for a period of years in order to acquaint himself with the principles and details of our molhods.