Facts and Figures.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 20, 19 May 1909, Page 21

Facts and Figures.

•’The alarming rate at which the world’s supply of timber is being depleted is causing the gravest anxietv to

those who are interested in afforestation, and many authorities on timber-growing affirm that unless the State undertake* some scheme of sylviculture, the very existence of the many industries dependent

upon our wood supply i* bound t«» be *erioiis!\ imperilled in the future.” This warning i* directed more particularly t«» the United Kingdom, but unfortunately it applies at least a* emphatically to nearly every other country in the world. In one sense it is quite unnecessary to pile up huge masses of statistics to illustrate what must be a sufficiently* obvious truth. For it i* *“lf-evi<lent that the forest resources of the world are not illimitable, and that if they are continual’y b.ing cut

down without being replaced, the day must come sooner or later when the dema ml for timber will no longer tin i means to satisfy itself. This is. of course, a mere truism, but like many other truisms it is not sufficiently appreciated by people in general, and this must be my excuse for labouring a point that certainly needs very little corroborative testimony. However, it may help to drive the argument home if I add here a few figures bearing on this question of th? diminution of the world’s timber stock, quoted from an interesting article

that appeared recently in the Melbourne "Age.” 'The world’s timlier supplies are rapidly diminishing. and in al:m»*t ever? country the eircum*tance i* cau*ing an apprehension bordering on const, rnation, for the demand for timber all the world over i* steadily and speedily augmenting. It wa* estimated not long ago by an Afforestation C ommittee in Britain that it the present rate of consumption is maintained the timlier supplies of Europe and America will be

exhausted in another twenty years. Britain annually import* 5.000.000.000 superficial feet of timber, and her consumption. according to the late*t available return*, increased in 1901 i by 033.000.000 feet. Germany has a we»L organised Forest Department, and onefourth of her area is under forest : nevertheless *he import* nearly 3.000.1 MIO.OOO superficial feet per year. France has one fifth of her area under forest, and she employ* 3000 officer* in the work

of timber conservation and reafforestation: yet France imports 738j0fe).000 fees of timber annually. The greater sources of s.ipp'y fit these countries are Northern Europe. America, an i to a small extent New Zealand.' But the enormous pine foiests of Northern Eur e-' are now alm -t denuded. New Zealand has 304)00.000.000 feet of timber stiis available. but it is diminishing at the rate ct 430.000JMX) feet a year. And America, comparatively speaking, is n i better cff. Tr.r e:t the United <ta:es t e t tai quantity of marketable timber tn 1906, according to the departmental ?a’<-j’a-vas feet. But Amer: a has yytlev. sawm.i.s at work, which are cutting the enormous quantity t feet per annnm. It is obvious, therefore, the “Ag eludes, it -he world's timber outlook is vety serious, and a shortage of suppiles witi..n the next eoupie of decades appears to be inevitable.*’ The Coming Crisis. "I may supplement the<e facts with a few further extracts from the article on “The Coming Timber Famine,” by Mr .T. M. Young. to which 1 have already referred : — “ The nflous strain u] R ussia’s timl - r forests has been, and still is. of sueh a vast ■ it the mtry will :: ' t : - ' . < :: its I - Norway a few years henee - - Indist ■ " ■ : ~ ~ . t t a-'*-: in ye.--- -a-t. wit ; little or ao jweparation for the future, is already telling a tale. . . . Twenty-fir rs i; ■ present rates :: cutting the timber supply of the United States will cease. Britain alone receives Aworth of timber annually f. m Amer'.ea. but the rapid increase in the lai n points to a not &r distant day when it will be only able to supply us with little more than halt that amount. The onee magnificent forests .:i United States have been enor-

mously reduced within the last few yean, and as the demand for a considerable time has been 25.000.000 tons ahead oi the natural supply, the process of extermination goes remorselessly on. . . . Cana is hitherto has materially helped to make good the deficit in America’s timber supply: but here, again, the mareh of civilisation is making i'-elf felt. The vast and ever-inereasing populati -n that has poured into Canada wi:ain the last few years has resulted in immense forests being euv down to make room for agriculture"*;' and in Canada, as well as throughout the United States, an everpresent and assiduous enemy is at w?rk in ths shape of "the devastating firefiend, the blighting irrepressible flames of which are responsible for the destraction of ten times more trees tian those fell-;-l by the axe.” It is true t.iat before the tim - r famine actually becomes aeute. the vast forests of Central and South America, of Central Africa, and N''rth-Ea-tern As.a will be requisitioned, and will help to avert the evil day. But all ti-is evider.ee tends emphatically to confirm the opinion already advanced that the world’s supply of timber is no longer equal to the demand, and that unless existing renditions are radically altered, a very few years will bring us all face to face with a most serious crisis thre-ug:. the universal s-.ircitv of one of the indispensable necessaries of progress and civilisation.