AFFORESTATION IN BRITAIN

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19639, 27 July 1935, Page 6

AFFORESTATION IN BRITAIN

English papers to hand by recent mails tell of the great efforts which are being made at Home to repair the damage wrought by the massacre of the trees. This massacre was particularly fierce in the period before the Great War,, but in the time of hostilities it was greatly accentuated, and developed into a positive orgy of felling. So urgent then became the demand for timber that it is estimated the country had been denuded of one-third of its remaining woodlands by 1919. The area felled between 1914 and 1919 has been

computed at 460,000 acres, but the actual drain upon standing timber pf all kinds wa§ much greater —as much as 1,000,000,000 cubic feet. * Rather late in the day a Forestry Commission was'appointed by the Government to cope with this grave situation, the great object being to replace as far as possible the denuded areas and extend and control the nation's timber resources generally. For fifteen years this Commission has been steadily'planting, preserving, and reserving lands for afforestation. During this period 500,000,000 trees have been planted, and the Commission has acquired land for forests in 192 separate places, some of the forests running into tens of thousands of acres.

It has been incontestably proved that a moderate extent of forest not only promotes in a high degree the productive resources of a country, but influences physical, economic, and hygienic benefits. The example of Britain could with profit be followed by this and other countries. . <