THE Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1920. THE FORESTRY QUESTION.

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XVII, Issue 5877, 1 April 1920, Page 2

THE Daily Telegraph W ITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER

THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1920. THE FORESTRY QUESTION.

Here Hi,ill t,hn Press tho People's Right maintain Unawod by inllmnii'O and nnliribed hy gain Here Patriot Truth her glorious precepts draw, Pledged to Religion Li herb ar.i) Law

The'arrival in New Zealand 01 Ihc meutly-appointcd Director of Forestry. Oaptaiii L, Mclntosh Ellis, marks a new ora as far as com-erms the Dominion forestry. Captain Ellis has had considerable experience of forestry work in Dritabi, Canada, the United States, and i' 71 .’ '■' I nee, his experience in the lastnamed country' being gained during the war. What may ho ! luMe oven late stage by proper eon:-V' r 'Mt ion is shovel by Sin David Hutchins, J.i.S., in Part 1., just issued., of Ids report on “New Zealand Forestry." Sir David is entitled to speak on forestry as one with authority. Alt bough he speaks very severely of our prodigal past in regard to our fine ua'tive timbers as “forestry turned inside out,” he demonstrates that it is iiol yet too la-to for ns to mead our ways and so (oiiserve and build up our splendid natural limber resources that they may become ihc envy ot ihe world. With almuda’.u t facts and figures, be eombat.s the idea that the kauri, our finest timber tree, is too slowgrowing ho be taken into consideration

■Jn connection with 'the conservation and development «: our forests. As a matter of fact, he quotes an instance of a kauri tree which shows a diameter gTowbili four times the nv'orage of European timber trees. 'Whole the average age of the five chief European timbers per foot of diameter is 11,1 years, the average of this kauri if it 1 in in diameter) for each foot of 'diameter was “8 years only; wli.de in another comparisri.i, dealing this lime with our six most important New Zealand limbers—kauri, rinm, white pine, totnra, pnriri. and tanekaha—he points out that “eomparAt to the five cincf European tankers growing under normal conditions ■'in their forest, the chief New Zealand trees hero show the same thickness in less than quarter the time, and the same height in, practically half the 'time. This “knocks both sideways aud endways’’ ilu' old-aeeeptei! ideas as J> the slow growth of New Z-enla nil's native trees. Sir D. Hutchins nisi dem’on- i strafes that Ihc kauri Is the (largest timber-tree in ihc world. The biggest well-authenticated measurements of a kauri on record, ho says, are then of thq three called “Kairaru,'’ in the Tnta-

Moo Forest, of which fclie- diameter was 22 foot and the clean bole TOO feet high. This tree cubed ont to ccic-thinl oi’ a •mil Sion superficial feet; ay heroes the largest of the “big trees,” “.Mother of the Forest,” i.n tlliio Calaveras Grove had a gross volume, according 'to the published official measurements, of only 1-1,<31t) board feel; so that the largest of the C‘aliibj'iii;ui “big trees" contained less than half tin- limber of the largest recorded kauri. Sir David :s of opinion that, by the systematic tapping oi kauri for resin. Hie kauri gum industry cak be made a growing and extremely lucrative business, instead of decaying and nil - match- dyi.tig out, as it must on tin present lines. As showing what may yet b? done w;th our kauri forests, be -states that quite* half a million acres o' l:auri forest might sbill be saved witii a policy of liberal demarcation and redemption, and that tho kauri limber crops from such an a n . u arc calculated ;

ns sufficient evctitnally to fully pay all | possible charges on one war debt; sim-e ) •500,000 acres, with a yearly net reviciue of ii.o )kt acre, would yield the State £5.000.000 yearly. The Imlk cf tins half-million acres would be in the Coromandel Peninsula and Hokianga. The above a,re only a few points takru almost haphazard from Sir D 1 lutdiius'.s interesting and valuable report.