The Sun WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1916. SCIENTIFIC FORESTRY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 857, 8 November 1916, Page 8

The Sun WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1916. SCIENTIFIC FORESTRY.

| Natural forests covered such a large portion of New Zealand when the first immigrants arrived that 'settlement particularly in the North Island, conld not proceed very far I without involving the destruction of ilarge areas of bush. During (he past i/0 years the process has gone on almost without interruption. Enormous quantities of valuable timber had to be.sacrificed owing to the fact that it would have cost more than it was worth at the time to jsaw it up, and put it on the market. (The prospective value of all this j timber was considerable, but the 'settler could not be expected to starve in order that posterity might not go short of building material, and as a result thousands of sheep and cattle are grazing over land that was formerly given up to the primeval forest. The process is still j going on, but of late years an outcry has arisen against the further destruction of native bush. A socalled Forestry Department has been 'created, and is engaged in the business of making extensive plantations in different parts of the country to {provide timber in the days when the Inative forests are completely destroyed, or worked out. For it is quite obvious that unless steps are taken to prevent it the day is not far distant when the indigenous timber will be exhausted. The activities | of the Government in the matter of ; afforestation, have been based, hitherto, on the assumption that j exotic trees were the only ones worth planting. An impression prei vailed that valuable trees such as the : kauri, the rimu, puriri, and totara, jtook too long to mature. This idea (lias been very thoroughly dispelled | by Mr D. E. Hutchins, the eminent [authority on scientific forestry, who 'came to New Zealand about a year 'ago, at the request of the Government, to report on forestry in NewZealand. Mr Hutchins's report has not yet been made public, but in a valuable paper contributed to the October number of the Journal of the Department of Agriculture he places on record some highly interesting fads regarding the more valuable of the Dominion's timber trees. Me finds that under natural conditions the kauri and the rimu will | grow twice as high and twice as ! thick in a given period as the Scotch ipinc, which is the standard European pine, and extensively planted in >different countries for limber purposes. By conserving the remaining native forests and planting i native trees they could be made 'available for future generations as readily as the exotics which are beI ing used to replace them. In regard to.the plantations at Rolorua, Ilanmer, and elsewhere, Air Hutchins lis impressed with the rapid growth of the trees, but points out that the | methods adopted have been haphazard and wasteful. There has been a certain amount of success in spite of a shockingly bad system of i organisation, and a want of technical j knowledge. Millions of useless trees I have been planted, and there has jheen needless destruction from fire lowing to the failure to lay out the |plantations according to proper and j definite plans. Evidently there is great need for a forestry department with a competent forester at the head of it, and the question is one iwhich should be dealt with by the Government at an early date if the Dominion's timber resources are to '" conserved und developed.

The destruction of the splendid new Stewards' Stand at Addington yesterday during the racing was an extraordinary business in the sense that under existing regulations the services of Hie Fire Brigade could not be obtained as the building was outside the prescribed area. Probably in no oilier city of the size but Chrislchurch could such a thing be possible. Once the lire was discovered, an attempt was made by a number of energetic individuals to locate and smother it, but the absence of water and fire-fighting appliances of an effective nature made the task hopeless from the beginning. With an efficient brigade within easy reach the stand was gulled, and it was only by Superintendent Warner exceeding his instructions that an engine was dispatched to the race ground and the main stand saved. Thus something like £IO,OOO worth of properly went up in smoke because a suburban body has not provided itself with reasonable means of protection against such a blaze as burnt out the Addington stand. If yesterday's fire is not a lesson to those local bodies who possess no fire fighting appliances, and who, mostly for parochial reasons, refuse to become part of Greater Christchurch and share in the benefits of water supply and fire protection, then they are incapable of being taught. It is nothing short of disgraceful that valuable property outside the city environs is left at the mercy of a strong conflagration because suburban ratepayers or their leaders have neglected to take the necessary elementary precautions. It is perhaps a pity that the Fire Brigade superintendent did not make up his mind a little sooner to override the regulations, for there can be no doubt whatever that the outbreak was discovered early enough to have allowed of the arrival of a fire engine some considerable time before the smoke began to issue from the edges of the roof. With the roof aflame, it would have been hopeless to try and save the building, but had the brigade been summoned promptly when exterior signs indicated that the fire had not yet begun to make headway, the stand would probably have not been destroyed. At least, that is how it appears to those who witnessed the affair from the earliest stages.