NATIONAL FORESTRY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 12101, 9 July 1920, Page 8

NATIONAL FORESTRY.

NEW GOVERNMENT POLICY. At the conference of the New Zealand Council of Agriculture, Captain L Macintosh Ellis, Director of Forestry, read a paper on “The Needs of Forestry in New Zealand.” He congratulated the council on the stand it had consistently taken with regard to this very vital question, and referred to the consistent policy which had been adopted in tbe past in regard to one branch of public forestry—afforestation, or the planting np of denuded areas. Up to the present there had been expended £296,000, securing over 37,000 acres of growing timber, which, within twenty-five years, will substatially contribute to the wood requirements of the nation (40,000,000 superficial feet per annum). It was quite apparent, Captain Ellis went on to say, that New Zealand must stand alone, and the problem of providing adequate timber supplies for this country must be solved within its boundaries. The immediate and fntnre demands were going to be very much greater than they had ever bean in the past. Captain Ellis went on to refer at length to the world shortage of timber and expressed pleasure that the Government is pledged to a definite policy. “Largely as the case for a national forest policy is based upon the requirements of the timber supply, there are other considerations, vital in themselves, which make such a policy essential. The nation has a threefold interest in forestry, which may be specified as follows: (1) The aesnrance of timber supplies; (2) the influence of forest cover on water conditions, soil fertility, climatic conditions, and public health; (3) the utilisation of all land areas to the best advantage. ” NATIONAL FOREST POLICY, Captain Ellis concluded by outlining the conditions no which, if the Forestry Department is to carry out its work efficiently and economically —if its national forest policy is to be in all respects successful—tbe State must be pledged: (1) All the forest resources of the country* will be managed by the forest service. (2) All the non-agricnltnral lands of the country carrying forest values or that are more suitable for tree growth than for agriculture, will be grouped into national forests dedicated in perpetuity to the people of New Zealand. (In some of your districts ! understand, nit one acre of forest land has as yet been set aside as State forests). (3) A comprehensive inventory of the forest resources of the - Dominion will be begun as soon as forest technicians arc available (4) A policy of enterprise will be adopted as to forest education. (I include under the heading Of education not only the technical training of forest engineers and other officers, but also tbe dissemination among the people as to what forestry means, what has been done, is being done, and will be done to safeguard the national prosperity in this direction.) (5) There will be a business like management adopted, one in which full harmionous co-operation is secured between the State forest service, public bodies, and private corporations and individuals. (6) inhere will be an expansion of the principle of cooperative profit-sharing and assistance in tree planting by individuals, private, and public bodies. (7) There will be worked out a system of equitable forest taxation such as is now in vogue in Great Britain, France, and in several States of the United States of America, by which it will he possiole for the individual to practise forestry and tbns ensure to himself a auppply of timber, and a profit to the commnnity (This feature is capable of great development.) (8) A Forest Act will be enacted at an early date—an Act which will be broad enough and liberal enough to permit of deliberate action over a period of years, (9) A forest products laboratory will be established *to investigate all wood problems; and the economical utilisation of the timber resources of tbe-country.