THE FORESTS OF NEW ZEALAND. 93 



Zealand to-day. Money for improving the poor European 

 forests was advanced by Government or paid for by cuttings 

 from the better forests. The forests were worked and gradually 

 improved by forestry methods, paying their way in the process. 



"The Prussians have kept, perhaps, the best statistics. 

 Details given in my report show that in a man's lifetime of 

 74 years the effective timber-yield in Prussia has been increased 

 nine-fold, and the money-yield more than ten times ! With the 

 making of forest roads the value of timber has gone up, too. 

 Timber which was worth from id. to 2d. per cubic foot in 1830 

 had an all-round average price, when this war broke out, of 3|d. 

 per cubic foot. In the most productive of European forests, 

 the spruce forests of Saxony, timber averaged 2d. per cubic foot 

 in 1830. When the war broke out it had risen to 6d. or 6;',d. 

 per cubic foot. In France results have been similar. The 

 national forests in Europe now yield handsome profits : — 

 to the five chief German States, ^6,000,000 yearly ; to France 

 (robbed of its best forests in 1870), ^1,000,000 yearly; to 

 Russia (from an area of only partly-developed and worked 

 forests exactly ten times the size of New Zealand), 4^ million 

 pounds. These are net revenues paid yearly into the State 

 coffers, and all come from forests worked conservatively, and 

 steadily improving. In the kingdom of Prussia the State forests 

 are the best revenue-producers after the State railways, good 

 and moderate in fares as these are . . . 



"There is no question as to the feasibility of applying 

 ordinary forestry methods to New Zealand forests. It has been 

 done for thirty-two years in South Africa, where the 'bush' so 

 closely resembles that of New Zealand. The employment in 

 European forests comparable to those of New Zealand, and 

 allowing for shorter working hours, is at the rate of one man 

 per 100 acres. This is the rate adopted in my report for all 

 calculations of employment, settlement, and money returns, sup- 

 posing that the New Zealand forests were developed on the lines 

 of those of Europe. At present, with the waste places desolate 

 and no national forestry, the average number of bread-winners 

 on the land (agricultural and pastoral) in New Zealand is one 

 man per 602 acres. Most of the expenditure in European forests 

 has been in making roads. As a rule, planting is only used 

 where natural regeneration fails. The state of Baden has forests 

 which supply the best model in management for New Zealand 



