SHORTAGE OF TIMBER.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16349, 5 February 1924, Page 3

SHORTAGE OF TIMBER.

PREDICTED FOR TWENTY YEARS HENCE. N.Z/MUST GROW HER OWN SUPPLIES. (Per Press Association.) 'WELLINGTON: this day. Captain Ellis, Director TJf Forestry. who has been attending the Empire Forestry Conference,' says that owing to losses by fire and insects Canadian timber will be nearly exhausted in twedty ;years. British Columbia is the d/ily jparfc with much timber left. Over a million a year has been spent on .fire prevention; still the losses are as serious las ever. The United States also is cutting trees at least four times faster than thev are being replaced. West Coast I timber will be exhausted in 17 or 18 I years, and the-' country must soon stop exDort; but attention ii (being given to reforesting. The conclusion Captain Ellis comes to is that New Zealand must grow, her own wood, supplies or go with out. New Zealand leads in certain phases of State forestry, but there is nerd of a forest school and provision for trained men. The conference recommended that the Empire should become self-supporting in timber matters, and it was pointed out that one-third of the world's forests were within the Empire—a total J of seven hundred thousand square miles. It also recommended the formation of nil Empire jFortet Bureau, considering that* a centra] institution for specialised training, com-, bined with research, was essential tothe proper development of the forest resources of tho Empire.