OUR FORESTS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144853, 3 December 1915, Page 2

OUR FORESTS.

DEATH; AND DESTRUCTIONFROM OUR OWK CORRESPONDENT. WELLINGTON, Dec. 2. general condition of the forests*©! New Zealand has- been & source of concern to the Government for some considerable time, and lately Mr. D. E. Hutchins, a botanist of wide and varied experience, was invited, to make a report on afforestation. Air. was for 23 years chief forest officer to the South African Government. He has _ spent four years in Equatorial Africa, studying botany, and ten years in India. Mr. Hutchins commenced his studies in Nancy (France), where the English Government sends all the botanical students. Our northern forests greatly impressed the visitor, especially those at Waipoua and Kewarewa, North Auckland, which, he says, are the finest in the Southern Hemisphere. .He has been .all through Australia, haring been engaged upon a forestry report for the West Australian Government at tfco time of his engagement for New Zealand. v Mx. is of the opinion that the New Zealand forests are being slaughtered ruthlessly. Since 1883 South Africa has had its forestry ar*. rangements set upon a workable oasis, and the system in vogue has proved itself, inasmuch as the timber is being cut out and yet preserved. The habit in New Zealand is diametrically opposed to that obtaining in Africa. Here no heed is paid to posterity, nature, or anything else, the axemen just get busy and chaos is the chief ganger. In the north Mr. Hutchins found too much larch, which, he said, was not a good tree to grow in those parts. What is wanted in New Zealand is organisation of the forests, and until that is obtained no good results can accrue. What we .should,bo doing, according to this authority, is cutting out the timber and making more grow in its place.