RE-AFFORESTATION.

Southland Times, Issue 20615, 13 October 1928, Page 3

RE-AFFORESTATION.

To the Editor. Sir, —For decades and under various Governments, our attitude to our great and valuable asset of native forest has been, “Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?” In recent years there has been a counter-cry, “Grow us timber.” It is a paradoxical position largely due to lack of foresight. Lately I met a sawmiller who has operated in the Longwood for a long time, and still has bush to keep him going for years. I asked him how he had managed to secure so large an area. His answer practically was, “By looking ahead.” When the demand was for the best and most accessible bush, he foresaw that in time the best and handiest timber would be cut out, that there would be recourse to rougher and remoter country and that methods of haulage would be improved. So he made his plans, and secured what nobody else wanted then. Similar foresight in Government Departments would have been a boon to our country. There has been far too much picking of the best trees out of forests, and disposing of so-called “cut out” areas in farms, without proper regard to the quality of the land. While some of our best farms have been won from the bush, others would now be more valuable in their native state. It seems likely that afforestation will be undertaken in the Longwood. Indeed I understand a start has been made in the Pourakino Valley. There has been some agitation to have the cut-out bush land in that locality disposed of in farms. I hope there will not be opposition if the Government Department’s decide to retain it as forest. Young trees planted there would be in congenial soil, and would have the shelter and shade of original bush left by millers as too small now, but which would also grow into millable timber. The Government Department’s have a local object lesson to guide them as to the wisdom or otherwise of making bush farms in that neighbourhood. There is a number of these between Fairfax and the Pourakino Valley. Considering the cost of survey and the large sums of public money spent on making a long road through heavy bush country, and also the labour and money spent by the occupants in clearing and grassing, I question if the farms are worth the outlay. The Government should know whether or not that settlement has been a success. Beech is plentiful in the Longwood. For years it has been in demand in Australia for furniture, and recently it has received high commendation for casing for dairy produce, etc. These are additional reasons for afforestation in the Longwood.— I am, etc., OLD HAND.