The Waipawa Mail WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 1882. FOREST CONSERVATION.

Waipawa Mail, Volume 4, Issue 377, 26 April 1882, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 1882. FOREST CONSERVATION.

Some time ago a certain gentleman —we think he was called Captain Walker—was appointed by the Government to report on the subject of forest conservation in New Zealand. The desire of the Government was a laudable one; for not only did the question of forest destruction or conservation directly affect the national pocket, but also indirectly affected all the sources of production by influencing the rainfall. The report sought by tho Government was made, and the maker of it was ablo to show, by reasonings based both upon statistics and the sum of a knowledge acquired by many years’ experience, that the rainfall of New Zealand was being vory prejudicially affected by indiscriminate troe destruction. Since that report was sent in to the Government, occasional references have been made to it by nowepapors, this ono among tlie number. It has beon shown, over and ovor again, that our forosts aro being destroyed at an utterly reckless rate, that such destruction involves a vory unevenly distributed rainfall—wintor floods and summer droughts—and that it would bo highly desirable for tho State to impose felling and planting provisions for the purpose of avoiding tho evils deprecated. But, although it is desirable that such provisions should oxist, tho Government have taken no steps in that direction, and the oftreiterated arguments based upon rainfall are apparently of too hypothetical a nature to influence holdors of forest lands. In this article, which is intended to furnish a reason why owners of timbered land should tako greater care of it, an appeal will be made based upon purely financial considerations. Busli laud will be shown to bo worth conserving, not because denudation will affect the rainfall, and through that tho production and consequent wealth of the district, hut because the present owners of timbered land may ensure, by a rational treatment of it, an income for themselves and independence for their descendants. As an example for argument we will take a block of forest land of 6000 acres in extant. We aro aware that it may bo urged a great deal of land of the description spoken of is held by ownors in very much smaller blocks than 5000 acres, but what is proved true of the area named will be relatively true of all other sized blocks, ana by arguing about such a large area tho importance of the subject treated will be more clearly seen. It has been proved by measurement and calculations carefully made by experts, that the amount of available marketable timber that can be cut from an acre of ordinary foreßt land varies from 5000 to 30,000 superficial foot. The average of that quantity would, of course, be 17,500 feet por acre ; but, for the sake of round numbers, and also for tho sake of a moderate estimate, we will assume the average yield of ordinary forest land to be 15,000 feet per acre. The amount of available timber for trade purposes on 5000 acres, at the above average, would give a total of 75,000,000 feet. Now it may be fairly assumed, taking all tho classes of timber together, that a moderate market price per hundred feet for the quantity of timber mentioned would bo 7s por 100 feet. By this calculation, tho worth of the timber on the area we have supposed would be £202,500. The problem now is, not bow to convert our 5000 acres of forest, at once, into sawn timber of tho value given above, because that is noither possible nor desirable. It is not possible, because if all owners of forest land began immediately to cut up as fast as possible, the market would soon be glutted, and timber of no value at all; and it is not desirable becauso such cutting up would mean the denudation of timbered land we are writing against. Tho real task is, to find out how much timber can be annually cut, as will, with a systom of planting to make up by growth for what is destroyed, allow of both keeping our forests and yet having a supply of sawa timber. To solve this

it is necessary to know how many 1 years it will take to produce fairly j marketable timber by planting; for the number of feet on our 5000 acres divided by the number of years it will take to raise fresh trees will give tho quantity which may be cut each year. The more slowly-growing kinds of trees, such as beech, chestnut, or oak, could not be fairly reckoned as fit to profitably cut under 120 years. But we are not going to calculate upon trees o£ tliis kind, because their produce would bo worth a vory groat deal more than 7 s per hundred feet, and, for the financial purposes of this article, timber of that value is all that is needed. Now most of tho American pines—yellow, pitch, spruce, &c, aro in groat demand for technical purposes, and may bo profitably cut at GO years old. If we then divide 75,000,000 feet of timber by 60, wo get tho amount which may bo annually cut so as to allow of replacing by planting. That is, we may cut the timber off a littlo less than 8-1 acres yearly, equalling a supply of 1,250,000 superficial feet, valued at £4375, and, by a system of judicious planting, go on doing this indefinitely. Now if we suppose the cost of getting, sawing, and sending to market, bo equal to 00 per cent of tho gross value, that will leave £642 as the profit on 84 acros of timbered land, or, in round numbers, about £7 per acre. It will bo seen that this sum, as it has worked out, allows all sorts of margins of profit on bush land, evon if it be of a quality that will not produce the 15,000 feet per acre set down, and it may bo fairly reckoned that no land with marketable timber upon it, under any possible circumstances, ought to return a less profit than £2 per acre. Is not this, thou, if reasons connected with rainfall do not urge us to keep our forests, a strong argument in favor of systematic cutting and systematic planting ? It is also an argument in favor of bush land being lot by tho Government, not as small farms, with conditions compelling the holdors to fell, but in large blocks, with conditions compelling the holders not to foil more than the 60th part of tho growing timber iu ono year, and to plant a young tree for each old ono knocked down.