The Wanganui Chronicle. MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1943. THE DEMAND FOR TIMBER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 234, 4 October 1943, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1943. THE DEMAND FOR TIMBER

'piE wartime demand for timber Jias increased month by month. At one time it was thought that the improvements in the metallurgical industries would result in wood being ousted from use iu building, in furniture manufacture and in aeroplane construction. The all-metal plane appeared to be a high level of achievement. Developments during the war, however, have revealed that wood is more than ever an essential commodity, and its use in the production of many things previously made of metal —aeroplanes included—points to an increased demand for wood in the future beyond anything that can be compared with its use in the past. In England the forests have been cut out at high speed to meet wartime demands, and a shortage of timber must be regarded as a certainty unless adequate steps are taken to offset it. Importation is not enough and this is a fact which the British Government recognises. A re-establishing of plantations is necessary and the Government is taking steps to ensure that there shall be a plentiful supply of young trees for transplanting as soon as labour becomes available for such employment. The United Kingdom Government is not contemplating a short-term programme, but aims to put into operation a plan to increase the nation’s forest area to 5,000,000 acres in the course of five decades.

New Zealand also is heading for a timber famine and it would be unwise to rely upon importations of foreign timbers. There are enough watersheds calling out for afforestation in order to. prevent floods and to stay the process of surface-soil denudation that is going on all the year round. Interest in afforestation has been re-awakened apd the work that has been done in the Wanganui district during the last depression will provide some useful guidance to further developments. A word of caution needs to be sounded now because a major error appears likely to be made; there is ground for believing that undue, attention is being paid to conifers which are not indigenous to New Zealand to the detriment of interest in the slower-growing native trees. There are many areas in New Zealand where it will not be convenient to carry out supervisory afforestation work save at feonsiderable cost. This cost could be reduced considerably by planting native trees which, immediately their community had become established, could be left to look after themselves. The quickmaturing conifers are not necessarily the quickest producers of timber in New Zealand. The trees that are slower in coming to maturity are. sometimes the quicker timber producers, while the value and importance of various native timbers should not be overlooked.

The coastal belt could rightly be planted with conifers because of their quick growth and the shelter which they afford, but co-ordinated with this endeavour should be. an even more widespread programme of re-establishing the native forests on the interior third-class lands which comprise the greater portion of New Zealand’s watersheds.