NEW ZEALAND’S FORESTS.

Putaruru Press, Volume XI, Issue 252, 18 May 1933, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND’S FORESTS.

VALUED AT £47,750,000. The total area of all classes of indigenous forests now remaining in New Zealand is about 12i million acres, or 19.1 per cent, of the total area of the country—the proportion should be about 25 per cent. —but of this only about 72 million acres, or 11.7 per cent., are controlled by the State Forest Service for forest management Of the 121 million acres only about 51 million acres, or 8.4 per cent, of New Zealand’s area, are commercial forests or forests that will profitably yield timber. The balance is “ protection forest,” the main value of which is for the maintenance of the regularity of stream flow, the prevention of erosion, the moderating of climatic extremes, and for recreation purposes. New Zealand’s indigenous forests .are communities of certain trees, shrubs, ferns, climbing plants, perching plants, sedges, mosses and other growth, all in a balanced relationship which is the result of tens of thousands of years of development without the presence of any plant-eating animal. The indigenous birds a#e also part of the forest eqmmupity, and they have valuable functions Jt in it. • • The monetary value of Nejv Zealand’s forests is apparently rarely thought of. The forests on the 71 million acres of reserves, which are administered by the State Forest Service, were in 1914 valued at £34,100,000. If the other indigenous forests (42 million acres) are valued -at only half this rate they are worth £10,450,000. All New Zealand’s indigenous forests have therefore a direct commercial value of £44,550,000. The State plantations on March 31, 1932, were about 350,000 acres in area, with a present value of not less than £2,000,000. There are about 250,000 acres of private and local authority plantations which are of a value of about £1,200,000. The total present value of all the planted forests in New Zealand is thus about £3,200,000, and the total value of New Zealand forests of all kinds is therefore about £47,750,000. The foregoing shows the great present monetary value of the New Zealand forests, but their value in the future welfare of the country is inestimable.