Building Timber.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13438, 9 November 1907, Page 3 (Supplement)

Building Timber.

FORESTS OF THE DOMINION

IMPORTANT -ESTIMATE

An interesting speech concerning the supply of building timber in the Dominion .was delivered at the meeting of the Builders' Conference by Mr Clarke, an Auckland delegate: Mr Clarke moved—" That the Government be urged to take immediate steps to conserve as far as possible the building timbers of the Dominion for the use of the people of the Dominion, and to extend the present system of forestry so as to ensure -a continuous supply of. timber for futiire use, and for climatic and) scenic benefits."—Speaking to the motion Mr Clarke said that the supply of timber in the Dominion was becomdng a serious matter. Even at the present rate of consumption they would find their areas uised up very soon, sooner than some people imagined. The milling timber in New Zealand at the present time was thirtysix thousand million feet, eighteen and three-quarter thousand million of which was on Crown lands„ and seventeen and one-quarter thousand million on native and private lands. Last year's output was 432,000,000 ft, thus at the current rate of output they might expect their supply to last for 83 years. The output of 1905 was less than this year's, however, by 19,000,000 ft, and a large! amount must therefore be allowed for increased output, reserves for scenic and climatic purposes, waste-by fire "and destruction, inaccessible situations, and smallnessof areas' >enderingworking nop-payable. This would reduce

the supply to less; than 50 years. If they deducted one-third of the timber available as being unsuitable, for building purposes this left them with twenty-four thousand millions of feet in kauri, rimu, 'totara, and matai. These were the principle -timbers in use at the present time for building purposes, and the supplies existing were : —Kauri 647,000,000 ft, red .pine or "rim-u 17.900,000,000 ft, totara l(025,000,000fi, black pine or matai 3,823,000,000 ft, miscellaneous say 605,000,000 ft j total 24,000000,000. If "then the areas of inferior timbers were left out of the reckoning it would reduce the amount available and thus bring the limit of, supply from 50, or at most 60 years, to about 35 or at most 40 years. " The output of kauri for 1906-7 was 106,000,000, and at the current rate of use six years would exhaust the present supply. The Auckland sawmillers had stated that they had made arrangements for the time when local supplies were worked out, but Mr Clarke went on to quote Canadian reports to show the rapid consumption there' and said that if that were, adopted he-re. it would clear every stick of timber out of New Zealand in two and a-half years. It was plain that Canada would have, soon to safeguard her forests for her own use, while the United States -were in need of all' their timbers. Where was New Zealand's supply to come from ? After dealing with the climatic.effects of the standing forests Mr -'Clarke said that it cost" £ls per acre in labour to convert mixed standing bush into marketable timber, while the land was worth £1 per acre more for paetorial 'purposes. If, however, the effect of the complete denundation of timber from the soil was the same as . that experienced in Russia, of which the speaker quoted examples, there would be no gain to agriculture. They were often told that the farmer was the backbone of the country,, but the backbone was not so independent of the ribs of commerce and the nimble fingers and skiller brain of the town and city craftsmen as some, of those worthies would have:tiliem believe. The body politic was very much corporeal' and the backbone without the ligatures of life and pertaining to the complete, anatamany ,soon became a hopeless jumble of unsightly and useful fragments. Mr Jacques, after expreesing; his pleasure *.; in supporting thernotion, said that the Government had-.dione! a great work , iii planting forest trees but had failed in their cultivation of them. As soon as they were planted they were'. simply allowed to grow and the- Government took no control. There was no* system -and-.-.-a number of the tress .planted never reached their full development,. Unless• something was done '/inj-'.this direction very shortly the efforts of the Government would fail. V The.-motion was carried,-.

Some time ago Senators and 1 Deputies of France raised their own Parliamentary salaries by the sum of 6,000f., or, in round numbers, £240, and an interesting sequel to tliis has occurred (says the Paris correspondent 'of the "Daily Telegraph') in the case of a well-known Socialist member. Several years ago his wife obtained a separation from him, .with the guardianship of their five_ children, it being arranged that he should allow her 450f. p:ir mOnui. Thinking, however, that, as his salary had been increased, rhe could easily ask for moie as well, the deputy's wife applied to the Court for an augmentation of oOOf. in hef monthly allowance. She had just obtained a rise of 200f., so that her allowance will henceforth be 650f. it might be argued that the member in question miglit himself have taken the initiative in assuring more comfort .to his family, but his excuse is well worth noting. He explained that, although the rise of 6,000f. was certainly substantial, the " appetites" of the constituants had gi>;atly increased, too. He still had htavy expenses incurred ai election timet to pay off, and he i>;>:! -iVto contribute £lO per month to the fund of his' party. So, after all, he was not much better off.