SPARE THE TREE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 14048, 19 July 1916, Page 5

SPARE THE TREE.

OUR DI^VPPEARING FORESTS. "The destruction of forests m New Zealand has now reached such a pitch ; that the welfare of the country is threatened." So spoke Mr D. E. Hutchins, F.R.G.S., late Director of. Forestry m South Africa, iii the course of I an address on f brestry ; at. ia. iiieeting held j of those interested "lii" the formation of a New ZealahU Forestry League: 7/ Mr, '• Hutchins pointed out that with the.de-' struction. of the. forest river floods.become more severe, ;and there oamc :. about a wasts pf good I land near, the > .river bjed?Y ; The loss, of its forests,, cpp-. '; tinned ' 'ib%' \speakerj is bije.jQf/ ,thp riipfiti ; difficult 'ptbn^ems, that, Zealand' i would have. 'to face. •. „_!e.--'6j^s&e.&.' :h£ ■ length the work of afforestation tiiat was' going on m other coipitries. £outh< • Africa, for' instance, was doing an that : " was possible to guard against' the dan- .-, ger. There the native forest is being carefully preserved 'and worked at apro^ fit, "and to cope with the, task there is m a, Forestry Departihent and- ..' a : complete system of forestry. This has * been going on for the last 33 years. The forests of South Africa closely resemble those of New Zealand,, but on the whole the 1 forests of Africa, are less valuable than those of New Zealand, ahd what is more, the best trees grow 50 per cent niore slowly. There is,- claimed the ; speaker, nothing remarkable m what is being done_ m South Africa ; it is simply what is being done throughout the civilised world, all oyer Europe, 7_brtn America, Japan, and, within the last year or two, even China has come into line. What to Mr. Hutchins appeared most remarkable was that a country like New Zealand, with forestry naturally indicated as one -of its chief j industries, should^ as yet have not taken the first steps m scientific forestry. Forestry m New Zealand, declared the speaker, has been misjudged by the idea that timber trqes^ here grew than those of ' other countries. As a fact the growth of, .the best timber trees m New Zealand, such as rimu and kauri, is con- \ siderably faster than is the case m many other countries. In most countries there were to be' seen three classes of forests, the wild fordst, the cultivated forest, and forest plantations. In this country there is the/ wild forest and the, forest plantations/but the cultivated forest has been entirely overlooked. Owing to a mistaken idea regarding the growth of the native trees m the forests of New Zealand, it has been, thought that the native forests should be cut, down and replaced by plantations of exotic trees. He. was certain that had any professional opinion been taken on the matter it would have been m favor of preserving the native forest. A -careful , estimate showed that it would cost 20 millions a year to destroy the native forest m New. Zealand and replace it by artificial timber plantations. And this, stated the speaker, is only to find timber for the present consumption. The expenditure incurred by cultivating forests could be met by the £1400 teat- was going out of the country daily no pay for imported timber. •": The official figures for Australia show that when the waibroke out it was costing that country three and a half millions yearly for imported timber, .while the exported timber was valued at only one million yearly. v There was two and a half.million pounds worth of hardwood imported into .Europe m a year, and he thought Australia could have supph'ed this. had the value of her forests . been properly recognised. "It is Unthinkable," con- .* tinned' Mr Hutchins, "that' New! Zenland,, naturally a richly endowed forest country, should •■; have to import its timber ■ from ■-..! Australia < ov the Northern Hemisphere in-: the future, Tlie economic.loss of doing so'Avith such a bulky material would ,be enormous. Half the beauty, ' top, ; of this fair land would be gone if the .forpsts \yere all destroyed." The speaker contended that should that cohie about .there would also be a loss of population, .:. and that, .-too, the pick of the -manhood of the country. The timber industry, which still employs more hands than any other industry 'in New Zealand, would vanish.! "The forestclad mountains of,, New Zealand," concluded Mr Hutchins, "are being turned into sheep walks and cattle runs, and the small quantity of sheep and cattle they carry is nothing compared to the s. ess of the national forests and the forest-laboring population. Too often vhen the ashes of .the burnt forests are vashed out there remains not even poor Mature, but. only a of gorse:»nd ■- Droom or bramble, and 'manuka, suggestng a good land; settlement pushed ito a] Hsastroiis yextreine." -.;■ A