Beporf of the Worh of the Forrstrij Branch. 905 



Waste of Valuable Timber. 



Fairly a])Ocry])lial statements of a startling nature having- l)een 

 reported to Lave been made recently^ and such statements havin<-" 

 been widely circulated and commented on by the press, it is perhaps 

 well to treat the subject at some greater length than the bare facts 

 would seem to justify. These facts do not accord in any way with 

 the somewhat reckless and even ludicrous pronouncements referred to. 

 Still there is waste in exploiting timber, and must necessarily be. 

 Most of it is absolutely unavoidable. There is similar waste in a 

 carpenter's shop. 



Strict regulations are made to prevent wanton waste, and these- 

 are duly enforced by the supervising staff. Of this we have had 

 recent independent expert evidence. 



Neither sawmillers nor splitters will waste material that has any 

 market value, if they can possibly avoid doing so. There is often the 

 appearance of waste to the casual observer that has no foundation in 

 fact. Hewers and others, after using all the merchantable portions 

 of a tree, leave in the forests the faulty portions that cannot be made 

 use of. They cannot do otherwise. In forests where fuel is of value, 

 and they are many, there is no waste. There is waste of " edgings " 

 at some mills, because there is no sale for the small scantlings obtain- 

 able from them ; but these millers have been induced by the local 

 officer to see if cutting pickets and fruit cases will cover expenses. 



A certain amount of waste, and of very valuable timber, is caused 

 by the extremely high standard set up by the inspectors of the Postal 

 Department in judging telegraph poles. At Rushworth such splendid 

 poles have been rejected — and consequently wasted — as almost to 

 amount to a scandal. Some steps may have to be taken in the 

 matter. 



Judged from the standpoint of counti-ies where every twig is 

 eagerly sought after and has a value, there may seem tube inordinate 

 waste, but the writer is prepared to state, after having obtained 

 special information from every forest, that the sum of irreventable 

 waste is comparatively small. There was a great deal many years 

 ago, and the evidences of it still remain, but they could not easily be 

 confounded with the operations of later years. The waste caused by 

 spot mills has been dealt with. However, destructive criticism is 

 easy and — cheap. 



Forest Offenders — Penalties. 



The totally inadequate fines inflicted during the year for serious 

 forest offences by some honorary benches have been a serious set 

 back to the efforts of the field staff, who have much difficulty in 

 sheeting home such transgressions. At present there is no remedy. 

 Some of these fines are so paltry as to induce pilfering and other illegal 

 practices, and make them more remunerative than honest dealing. 



Possibly the new Forest Bill may contain a clause dealing with 

 this. If a provision fixed a minimum fine for every offence, and for 

 each succeeding one on a rapidly rising scale, offences would be more 



