DENUDING THE FOREST PRIMEVAL

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 18, 3 May 1911, Page 18

DENUDING THE FOREST PRIMEVAL

From time to time depression in the timber trade, or the publication .of a Departmental report rouses a certain amount of public interest here in the problem of deforestation ami its effects.- Yet the work of destruction goes steadily on; our timber supply is running short, and all rhe far-reaching evils concealed behind the ominous terms, Denudation ami Erosion are pressing close upon the footsteps of the settler and the sawmiller. Two Australian public officials Mr. McFarlane. Comptroller of I’risons, and Mr. R. D. Hay. Director of Forests, who have just travelled through our bush districts and inspected our system -of afforestation by prison labour, have made some interesting remarks on their observations. Both gentlemen seem to have been much impressed, not only by rhe success which has attended reafforestation here, but by the immense amount of damage inflicted on the country by the destruction of the indigenous bush. Already we are assured, though this country is so young ami comparatively unsettled, deforestation has wrought conspicuous evils. The exhaustion of our timber stocks is relatively a trivial matter compared with the terrible evils that must inevitably result from the destruction.of our native bush if we make no effort to replace it in time. (1) A timber mill at Dargaville, sowing the river and shipping. •Ji bridge over the Kaihu River, Northern Walroa, showing the denuded hillsides. (3) A train load of timber at Ahuroa on the North Auckland railway.