AFFORESTATION.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 864, 16 November 1916, Page 2

AFFORESTATION.

MORE VIGOROUS POLICY. URGED BY BUILDERS' FEDERATION. fSpecial to The Sun.] WELLINGTON, November 15. The problem of afforestation was discussed at the annual conference of the New Zealand Builders' and Contractors' Federation here, and it was decided, at the suggestion of the Auckland Association, that the Government should be urged strongly "to make an alteration in the control of the forestry section of the Lands Department, as suggested, for example, in the report of the Royal Commission on Forestry, 1013, so as to provide for a more vigorous policy in the matter of afforestation."' Delegates stated that the matter was of pressing importance, in view of the rapid reduction of the Dominion's stocks of native limber and the increasing cost of building materials. The conference had before it a paper on the subject of afforestation, prepared by Mi - J. I. Clarke, of Auckland, a member of each of the Forestry Commissions which have sal in New Zealand. Mr Clarke staled that the increasing cost of timber and the growing difficulty of securing supplies justified an insistent demand for "a much more systematic and comprehensive policy in the matter of providing for an adequate, permanent, and continuous supply of commercial timber." There was no doubt at all that the natural supplies of New Zealand building timber were rapidly disappearing, and the position was similar in the other timber producing countries. The pinch was being felt already, and it would grow more serious year by year.

"A glance at the conditions recorded in other parts of the world in this .connection," stated Mr Clarke, "will help us to understand how urgent is the need for action here, seeing that it is hopeless for us to expect relief in the form of cheaper or even reasonably-priced timber from overseas, to say nothing of the foolishness of depending upon foreign sources of supply of a material which can be readily and profitably produced at our own doors. The cost of timber in the United Kingdom has increased during the last 10 or 12 years (regardless of war conditions) by quite 50 per cent." Mr Clarke quoted authorities in support of his statements, and mentioned that some of the limber placed upon the markets at the present time would not have been considered to have any market value at all a few years ago. "Our federation is entitled to speak with authority on a subject with Which it is so intimately concerned, seeing that the very life of our industry depends upon a supply that is being rapidly drained away," added the paper. "We should regard it not as a matter of interest only, but as a matter of duty to demand the attention of our representative men in local and general politics to the question of making provision for large extensions of State and municipal forestry, as the only efficient means of preventing such disastrous consequences as must ensue if the country has to depend upon sources of supply which are in the same unsatisfactory state as our local sources. An adequate supply of timber is an absolute necessity in the business requirements and the daily life of the people."