STATE FORESTS

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13750, 25 April 1918, Page 6

STATE FORESTS

A SCHEME TO PROVIDE HOMEGROWN TIMBER. The final report of the Forestry Jvjb-'.-emmiitee. of the British Pecoi'.sti'Ut'tiou Committee has been issued, ii recommends a comprehensive scheme for national afl'or« sl;i!ion, and the Minister ii' Reconstrueiiou is carefully eon,id, i'in- how far and in what way effect :;:u\ I:,. ;l\ i! to tlio proposals. Mr V. I'. \el':ir.d,.M.P., presided over tiie SubCommili.'l', which was appointed by the Prime Minister in July, 191 G. T! e Committee recommend a scheme of ; : t;:le planting which in an emergency world keep the United Kingdom inuepenuem oi impui-ieu umuv. »w .. years on a present day war basis of consumption. The total cost for the first 10 jcars Avii-i bo u'->uui. ~J,r>CC, 000, allowing not only for the direct cost of afforestation, but for all incidental charges. Against this expenditure must be considered not the financial return on the capital, which, though certain, would be distant, but the sum that it has cost us during the war through the enormously enhanced prices of imported timber. During 1915 and 1916 alone we paid £37,000,000 more than its pre-war value for the timber we imported. "Such a sum," say the Reconstruction Committee, "would cover several times over any possible loss which could be incurred on a wellconducted afforestation scheme."

More important from a war point of view than cost was the amount of tonnage absorbed by these imports, which the report states at 7,000,000 net tons of shipping, equivalent to approximately 15,000,000 tons dead weight. The proportion got from the Empire fell from 22 per cent, in 1899 to 10 per cent, in 1913. The practical utility of afforestation at home is proved by the fact that 90 per cent, of our imports are the soft woods of coniferous trees which could be grown in this country.

The Reconstruction Committee estimate that there are not less' than three and probably more than five million acres of land utilised for rough grazing but capable of growing first-class timber of the same character as that imported Of this area 2,000,000 acres could be put under timber without decreasing the homo production of mea! by more than 0.7 per cent., and it would ultimately give employment to at least tm times the number of men now employed by grazing.

The Scheme. The scheme which the Committee recommend proposes I" afforest 1,770,000 acres. ' Taking 80 years as the average rotation, two-thirds of the whole should be planted in Hie first 40 years. From the 15th year onwards the scheme would begin to provide pitwood from the quieker-growmg species on the hotter kinds of mountain land. ]3y the 40th year the plantations made in the first 10 years alone would contain enough timber to keep our pits supplied in emergency for two years at the present rate of consumption. The total cost for the first 40 years may be £15,000,(Ki0. After that time the Eelieme should he self-supporting. The whole sum involved is therefore less than half the direct loss incurred during the years IMS and 1916 through dii'ondoiiec on imported timber. The reporl points out that if the Go. vor:mient should wish to employ the maximum number of men discharged from the Serviees'during the period of demobilisation, the rate of planting might be greatly speeded up. The committee propose that at least 150,000 acres of the initial 250,000 sjiould bo planted by direet State action, and that for the remainder (left to local bodies and private landowners) there should he State assistance and control.

"We do not believe (says the report) that State afforestation means expensive and inefficient action. On the contrary, we have the long experience of all the countries in which a (forestry has reached a high pitch of development, and the promising methods of management in certain cf the Crown wood; of recent years, to prove the opposite." The committee's scheme of State control and management is to create a special authority, a Forestry Commission represented by a Parliamentary Commissioner in +he House of Commons. The commission would consist of six members, three of them wholetie!', saliriod officials, the others unpaid. There would be consultative committees for England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. For carrying out the scheme, forest officers, foresters and foremen would be required and would have to bo trained. Forest officers would be inspectors engaged on survey, planting plans, supervision of planting, and advisory and experimental work. It is estimated that the service would require 00 officers by the fifth year of operation. Probably 20 reliable men with a good knowledge of British conditions would be available at the outlet. These men would h tve to be university trained, and the standard noc-pssan- is that ror»*««r»iiled by a good honours degree in science. It is recommended that the Forestry Commission should undertake the general control of forestry education, and should maintain "demonstration wo- ids" for practical work. The increase of population on th? land under the committee's scheme would lie considerable. Tt is estimated that it would result ultimately in the settlement on the soil of not less than 25... 000 families, or 125,000 persons in all. War Necessities. The necessities of war govern ih" whole report. A few passages may be quoted from the general summingup of the military' fili;e !or tion:"We have, to speak plainly, run

risks against which every other con- : ■■ •''.ai,ii country has long taken cure to protect herself." "The war lias disclosed no demand which could not have been satisfied by timber grown in this country Mich its favourable soil and climate and abundance of waste land." ••ft is oniy a question of time before the whole of the country's growing timber which is fit for commercial use must disappear. The result is a depletion which the Government cannot afford to neglect. This country, poorer in timber at the beginning of the war than any other European country except Portugal, will be moro destitute, still at its close. Even if every acre felled is replanted, it will bo many years before the present output can be repeated.''