World’s Timber Famine Prophesied.

Progress, Volume XIII, Issue 9, 1 May 1918, Page 207

World’s Timber Famine Prophesied.

GOVERNOR-GENERAL’S WARNING, The Governor-General of Australia, Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson, in an interview granted to the Hobart “Mercury” early this year, gave Australians an unqualified warning of the sure approach of a timber famine. The timber reserves, said his Excellency, arc being rapidly exhausted. We cannot depend on con tinned supplies from the Baltic, because the forests, of Russia and Scandinavia are being exhausted more rapidly than they arc being reproduced. In North America the losses by fire are so great that it is estimated that for every one tree used ten are destroyed by fire. It is, therefore, certain that no dependence can be placed on continued supplies from that country. Moreover, it is to be remembered that the local demand in all those countries is enormous in any case. It is as certain as anything can be that within a generation there will be a timber famine throughout the world. It is, then, not too soon to get our house in order, so that we may preserve our natural forests of unrivalled hardwoods, and at the same time establish those forests of Finns Insignis and of other families of the coniferous species which will in due course replace our imports from the Baltic and North America. A brief sketch of the present condition of forestry in Australia was added. “Great advances are being made in Western Australia and South Australia by reason of the Ministers concerned with forestry taking a deep interest in it and having at their elbows trained advice. In Western Australia the revenue from timber is a very considerable item. In South Australia the natural timber resources arc very small, and as, on the other hand, the need is considerable, the State has been stimulated into many activities. The theory of forestry has been well taught for a considerable time in South Australia, at the University as well as in the State forests. The growth of exotic conifers, such as Pinius Insignis, has a peculiar value in that State, where there is a great demand for cheap timber for fruit boxes, and for other industrial purposes, for which most of the native timbers may be regarded as much too valuable. Similar progress is being made in the other States, while the Federal Government is taking an interest in the forests of Papua. “It would, however, be a great advantage if a properly selected party from Australia would visit South Africa and India. In South Africa valuable

object-lessons in afforestation could be studied, and in India the constitution of forest schools, and the whole method of training foresters would be seen. The conditions in South Africa are somewhat similar to those in the southern parts of Australia, and in India they approximate to those of the northern coast districts. Forest Reserves. “Two or three considerations,” continued the Governor-General, “are very apparent to Australians. One of these is the importance of allocating land respectively for forestry, and for agricultural or pastoral settlement, a process which can be accomplished by a rational compromise between the representatives of forestry and of agriculture. But to determine the boundaries of forest lands, the advice of expert foresters is necessary, and so, also, in regard to the treatment of forest areas. Australian forests have suffered most of all from fires, and next to fires come indiscriminate felling. To check the waste that results, we are dependent always on expert advice from the trained forester, whose presence in sufficient numbers is essential. With that advice, there should be no difficulty in creating forest reserves, and there can be none in laying down forest plans under which the produce from the forest, and its regeneration, will be controlled. For various reasons, the returns from the timber resources of Australia have been very small, partly owing to the fact that the crop is so thin and scattered, and partly because access is frequently difficult, and extraction of the timber very costly. There is no reason why much heavier crops should not be secured, and the rapidity of growth of most of the Eucalypts and other species, as compared with Europe, should be a great incentive to take the necessary steps to secure more profitable yields. Valuable Australian Timbers. “Undoubtedly the Australian hardwoods are among the most valuable in the world, many of them ranking with the highest class of cabinet timber. In time they will become better known in Europe, and command prices which will more fully represent their value. Hitherto these timbers have been indifferently made known, and owing to the lack of classification they are heavily handicapped in the chief markets of the world. Some of the Tasmanian timbers, like Blackwood, are unique, while others, like Huon Pine and Celery Top, can hardly be replaced when the.supply is exhausted. It is true that the return from a timber crop is not garnered within a few weeks, or months, or even years, but the prospective value of a well-managed forest is sufficient to justify the exercise of forethought in planning and expenditure. Most of the Australian varieties can be easily produced by the process of natural regeneration, so long as there is adequate protection against fire, and because of that, a great part of Tasmania should rank among the richest of the timber-producing districts of the world. The returns from the cheapest kinds of timber grown in Europe should give sufficient encouragement to pro-

duce the far more valuable timber of this country. For example, land in Saxony, worth 3s. 6d. a year for pasture, has been made to yield 50s. a year in growing Spruce for paper pulp, and this over areas of thousands of acres. In the United Kingdom, where forestry is comparatively neglected, Larch woods of thirty to forty years old, grown on land worth only a shilling or two a year, are being sold at a rate which realises £IOO to £l5O an acre, by far the greater proportion of this representing net profit to the grower. The fact is that, just as some land may be worth £SO an acre for agriculture, owing to its natural suitability for farm crops, so other land, which has comparatively no value for agriculture,

will give a return, under silviculture, equal to that of the best agricultural land. Tasmania’s Opportunity. “Germany,” concluded his Excellency, “had a population of four millions dependent on the growth and manufacture of timber, and there can be no doubt that if the science of forestry is developed here, as on the continent of Europe, hundreds of thousands of our people will find occupation in the same way; an occupation which is among the healthiest and most remunerative of them all. It is obvious that, with the prospective development of industries in Tasmania, through the use of cheap electrical power, the local consumption of timber is likely to increase largely. And in addition to the

local consumption, there is the fact that Tasmania can produce timbers unrivalled in the world where the wants of hundreds of millions of people are to he supplied.