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of tests were partiallyjcomplcted for tawa and silver-beech, and will be continued during the current year. This branch of research is a most important one in New Zealand, for the annual timberwastage bill amounts to 8,000,000 tons. It is obvious that a fuller economic use of our timber resources should prolong our valuable supplies by at least a generation. An outstanding result of the operation of the Forest Service was the success attained in the reorganization of the system of State timber-sales. All. timber is now disposed of openly and competitively. At first deliberate opposition was met with in some quarters, but when it was seen that open public competition was fair to all the method has been generally accepted. A feature has been made of offerings to the small operator, and due regard is now being paid to the economic needs of local sawmill industries i n each forested locality. The Service has steadily laboured to bring home to every man, woman, and child in the Dominion a realization and appreciation of forestry and its value. CHAPTER IL—THE STATE FOREST SERVICE. The period under review should be considered as the first year of operation of the State Forest Service, for it was only late in March, 1921, that the organization was assembled and assigned to duty. The successful assumption of new responsibilities and forestry duties by the staff has been really remarkable, and the personnel has quickly measured up to the serious obligations involved in timber administration and technical duties. A barrier to serious advance has been the lack of trained technicians. Every month of delay in the formation of academic forestry instruction, of course, means the loss of years in the preparation of permanent forest plans, and the loss of millions of tons of valuable timber through the inability of the executing personnel to cope with the solution of technical problems. During the year the regional, forest clerical staff, who might be termed the Conservators' business assistants, at Auckland, Palmerston North, Nelson, Hokitika, and Invercargill, has carried the entire responsibility for clerical and accounting detail, routine correspondence, forest registers, and typing. Relief from the mechanical detail of typing is now essential in the interest of efficiency. It is satisfactory to know that most cordial and harmonious co-operative relations are being evidenced in every region between the field staff and the public. This was particularly noticeable during the forest-fire season, at which time public co-operation is essential to effective fire-control. It is the desire of the Service to assiduously cultivate this aspect of mutual respect: every officer of the State Forest Service has by virtue of his respective post a high position of trust and stewardship with regard to the public property under his control. Five withdrawals and resignations were recorded during the year.

Forest Service Organization.—Distribution of Total Force, New Zealand State Forest Service, at 31st March, 1922.

CHAPTER 111.--THE STATE FORESTS. 1. CONSTITUTION OF STATE FORESTS. " Forestry aims at continuously productive State-forest lands, and the propagation, growth, and exploitation of the ripe timber crops in perpetuity." It is only by the application of silviculture to the national forest lands that the ever-increasing needs of the country may be met. The public safety demands the extension of forest-management to all the Crown woodlands, and the control, by one authority of these properties and all other public lands chiefly valuable for forestry. State Forest Areas. The grand total area of Crown forests provisionally and permanently gazetted as State forests and other forest lands administered by the Forest Service as at the 31st March, 1922, was 7,181,975 acres (1,089,511 acres permanent State forests, 5,404,806 acres provisional State forests, and 87,658 acres forest reserves and miscellaneous).

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t'orest-conservation Region. I a p CJ CD d c3 hh F-< CD fl) J02 O O 73 O TO +j > co fH <D o -— m O B o i o 'a $ ft 0Q •P ! .9 go CQ GO o I*. i 02 ■I 1 a GO I e ■+= CO © O co bO II 02 G" be 0 « M U ■3 P" a f4 i 1 < © a co-§ b CD c6 o y —< co C) § c8pH H -P 8 S c Auckland Rotorua Wellington Nelson Westland Canterbury-Otago Southland Central Office .. 1 • • ■ • 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 4 1 13 .. ! 1 3 1 6 2 3 ..II 4 .. 1 5 ..2 6 .. ! 1 3 5 | .. .. 5 i 9 30 4 1 3 .. 1 7 20 6 6 8 21* 6 25 . . ! . . . . ! . . . . 1 1 1 5 ■ 3 :: 1 1 2 1 1 ! Totals .. 1 | 1 [ 1 *Thr< 5 36 pffi( 2 1 2 25 9 6 i 1 1 99 JCl'S Ul nder iotice of re iirement.