THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume L, Issue 12650, 7 September 1904, Page 4

THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

Forming a part of tho annual report of the Lands and Survey Department lire some remarks upon the milling timber resources of the colony. Those show lhat ihe grog's total of t.iillingtimher upon Crown lands is 20,405,327,000 superficial feet, which is equivalent 1o fifty-five years' supply. The investigations and proposals regarding timber upon Native and private lands are not. yot complete, but it is estimated that, if the present rate at which the forests aYe being reduced is maintained, the whole of the timber in the colony will not last more than seventy years. Seventy years seems a long time to look forward, but it is little more thnn tin* life of the colony at -the present time. It is onfy sixty-four years since the colony was established

and already its timber resouitces are so far exhausted that the end is elmost in Mgl»t. The.c include all kinds of timber, Including miio. hinau, and birch.*. The kauri foriwt-s are almost exhausted, what is left being- only sn-Hicient to maintain Ihe present output for eight \.uirs. When the kauri is gone the rinm. nuvtai. and 'tot am forests i\ill worked upon much more rapidly. Tho outlook is not a pleasant one, and yet the colony continues to export timber, especially kauri, which in a very few years we shall be sadly in want of for our own pwrposes. Already there is talk of conserving the white pine by prohibiting or hea\ilv t using its export. Yet thcJro is vastly more of that timber than of kauri left. It is a suicidal policy export'mcr good timber at all, and Ktops ought to be taken at once to prevent it. for the little planting that is going on v. ill oot meet ihn colony's needs for a creat number of year*;.