STILL MORE TREES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3869, 8 May 1928, Page 12

STILL MORE TREES.

Prior to 1914 the practice of forestry held little or no public interest. State afforestation and the recognition of the necessity for timber growing for industrial developments may, without exaggeration, be said to be one of the few benefits which we have deiived from the war. The forest conscience among every section of the community has been awakened, and all that is needed now is to see that it is properly fostered. In the past forest commissioners have had uphill work, as with all undertakings in the initial stages, but of late we note a marked change for the better, and although the situations leaves much. room for impi ovement, the outlook is better than it was. In New Zealand the total area of State forest plantations was 98,891 acres. It was hoped to increase the area of State commercial softwood plantations by 25,000 acres during the year ended 1927, and it is the objective of the Forest Service to plant well over 300,000 acres during the next decade. The policy of adequately providing for the country’s needs in the way of timber will no doubt be approved as the years roll on. At the present time an area of 7,600,000 acres is under the control of the State Forest Service. In other words, 11.5 per cent, of the superficial area of New Zealand has been dedicated to the business of forestry. The national problem of converting to productive use the idle or deteriorated lands in the country, estimated at approximately 5,000,000 acres, lias had the attention of the officers of the State Forest Service for several years, and the hope has been expressed that the application of “diiect plantation ' formation ” practices will enable the forest authority to establish commercial forests over this great area of waste lands within 25 years if the present average appropi iations for the purpose are maintained. The fact that the position of Director of Forestry the Otago Daily Times), rendered vacant by the recent • resignation' of Captain L. Macintosh Ellis, who is joining one of the private afforestation companies, has not yet been filled, is apparently due to the circumstance that some reorganisation is being effected in the State Forest Service. This may probably be taken as indicating that the Government has decided to abandon one of the activities of the service which has brought it into competition with private* nurseries. For the year 1926-27 trees to the number of 4,760,000 and 38611 b of tree seeds were sold from the State nurseries to farmers, proprietary companies, local bodies, and others, while 24,590 trees , and 1901 b of tree seeds were distributed free to the schools. The nurserymen have protested against this form of activity on the ground that it is an unwarranted State interference with private enterprise, and, moreover, that the competition, even if it were in itself legitimate, is conducted on illegitimate lines. Their protest is scarcely surprising, since the disposal by the State of nursery stock at rates which are said io allow little or lio margin for profit has seriously affected the operations of nurserymen, and has, in fact, driven some of them out of the business. The circumstances seem to call for an application of an important feature of the Government’s policy.

We cannot have too many trees, and we cannot have too many persons interested in the propagation and development of them, and probably it was the Government’s duty to take drastic steps to awaken the “ forest conscience.” The times have changed. Trees are indispensable, a fact which is being impressed with increasing force upon tne ■world generally. . .. .j,