FROM JUNGLE TO FOREST.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 July 1925, Page 7

FROM JUNGLE TO FOREST.

RE-CLOTHING THE RANGES. THE MINISTER SYMPATHETIC. Representations were made some time ago by the North Taranaki branch of the Farmers’ Union to the Forestry Department to have a portion of the Kaitake Ranges near Tataraimaka, which has been denuded of trees and is now practically waste land, re-forested by the department. An officer was subsequently sent to report on the area in question, and his report stated that the land was well suited for the purpose mentioned. The department considers, however, that the area is too small for its own purposes, and suggests that the Egmont National Park Board should take the matter in hand. In a communication received by Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P., the Commissioner of State Forests (Sir R. Heaton Rhodes) stated that the report of his officer on the land had just come to hand. The total area of 34'5 acres was, however, considered by his responsible officers to be too small to form an effective plantation unit under State control, more especially as the land was vested in the Egmont National Park Board, but it could be admirably dealt with as a sound financial proposition if planted by the board. Furthermore, the planting of the area with suitable coniferous exotics would prove an excellent means of checking and ultimately extinguishing the weeds at present on the ground. If planting was decided upon, trees could be supplied at practically cost price from the State nursery at Rotorua, and any further advice on the matter -would be gladly given by the forest officer-in-charge, Palmerston North.