The Use of Forests.

Progress, Volume XVI, Issue 12, 1 August 1921, Page 282

The Use of Forests.

In the course of an interview with a Lyttelton Times representative, Mr. Lawson said : —" An authority on forestry has stated that it is not forests, but the use of forests, that we seek to perpetuate. Therefore, to be sound and convincing, educational publicity must include the timber business. So long as the public believes that forestry is good and sawmilling bad, there will be confusion and no real progress. Nowhere does this axiom apply more than in New Zealand, where the most wanton waste has taken place in our forests; and the aim of a forestry policy must be, not to forbid the cutting of timber, but to encourage it upon thrifty lines.

" The Forestry Department has already begun the work of conserving the forests of this country. It" is not within the province of the Department, however, to carry out a widespread campaign of education of the public in forestry. That work has been undertaken by the New Zealand Forestry League, which was formed some years ago. The setting up of the Forestry Department may be claimed to be an important result of its activity."