224 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [May 
come thirty years too late, and in the adjoining country the necessary 
clearing for settlement has extended too far up the steep slopes of the 
mountains. There is nothing in the report to show that Mr. Hutchins’s 
demarcation has been accepted. In the preface the Under-Secretary of 
Lands merely states that “ his reports will require and deserve the most 
careful attention of all interested in the perpetuation and protection of 
our native forests, and the providing of timber for the future commercial 
needs of the inhabitants of New Zealand.” 
The total timber stand of the Waipoua Forest is estimated at 
288,020,000 superficial feet of timber, with the present royalty value of 
£566,750, representing about £18 17s. lOd. per acre. This is not much 
above one-tenth of the standing timber assumed for the normal fully- 
stocked kauri forest of the future. At present the forest, being a virgin 
forest, is earning no interest on its value regarded as capital. It is in a 
state of nature where growth balances decay. When put in order it should 
be earning £10 per acre per year— i.e ., £300,000 yearly for the whole 
forest ; but it would be a hundred years before the bulk of these earnings 
could be realized. 
The working-plan recommended both for the Waipoua Forest and for 
general adoption in New Zealand forests consists in (1) working of the old 
stocks of timber from the virgin forest with little delay ; (2) starting the 
rejuvenated and improved cultivated forest as soon as possible ; (3) pro¬ 
viding for a fair distribution of age-classes at the end of the rotation, and 
thus ensuring economical milling. This would mean that after cutting 
out the present stock of mature kauri and other timbers the forest would 
give much the same average employment and average money returns as 
successful dairying on the soil, and at the end of a hundred years about 
double the employment of dairying. 
Before this can be commenced, however, there are three urgent matters : 
the railway must be continued to the forest (a matter of ten or twelve 
miles), forest stations must be provided, and roads must be formed. 
Including the logging and the milling of the timber, the roadmaking and 
the building, there is well over £500,000 worth of work to be done in 
Waipoua, so that the value of the present stand will be used up in getting 
the forest into working-order. In the meantime the staff of Forest 
Rangers costs £575 yearly, and the forest is returning nothing, and losing 
the interest on the value of the mature timber—viz., £22,680 per annum— 
and the heavier loss of absence of increment on young trees. 
Concerning roads Mr. Hutchins has much of interest to say. He points 
out that the reservation of the forest has retarded the development of the 
neighbouring cleared land, especially in the matter of roads. “ The road 
question in New Zealand has this significance : Many of the constant 
demands made by County Councils to have forest opened at any cost are 
made in order to get roads and road rates from the occupiers of the 
destroyed forest. Their attitude would be different if they were assured 
that cultivated forest means before all things roads, and, further, that good 
cultivated forest means more settlement than dairying on poor soil.” The 
roads projected for the Waipoua Forest are a main metalled road running 
from Waimamaku Settlement through the forest to the railway, fed by a 
system of broad grassed forest roads and “ rides,” acting also as fire¬ 
breaks, and providing fodder for the animals necessary to work the forest. 
Incidentally the scenic attractions would be greatly enhanced by such grass 
roads, and it is anticipated that the forest will become as well known in 
Australasia as the Black Forest is in Germany. J. A. T. 
By Authority : Marcus F. Marks, Government Printer, Wellington. 
11 , 800 / 4 / 19-5751 
