102 PROTECTION FOR HOME-GROWN TIMBER. 
TartrF ProrEcTioN ror HOME-GROWN TIMBER. 
As I shall mention elsewhere, if there is a strong case anywhere for 
a high import tariff it is to protect the impoverished forests of New 
Zealand, and their industries, against this unfair temporary competition 
—timber ‘“‘dumping.’”’ By the time that the Kauri and other forests 
mature as cultivated forests, with perhaps ten times their present average 
productiveness, foreign timber will have ceased to trouble home in- 
dustries. Most of the private forests in North America will have gone the 
way of private forests generally, and the national forests will be insuffi- 
cient to supply national needs in America, leaving nothing for export. 
As much as four-fifths of the present merchantable timber in the United 
States is private. Siberian forests are earmarked for the supply of 
Europe and a civilized China. | 
EvrorpEAN Forest REVENUES. 
The following average yearly net revenues from cultivated forests in 
Europe may be compared with the £10 16s, estimated for the normal 
Kauri forest :— 
Baden, net revenue, average for all State forests (mixed ¢£ , 
forest) et 7 Ky ee = *¥ 
Wiirtemberg, net revenue, average for all State forests 
(mixed forests) oR #1" af Ee 
France: La forét de Levier, Jura Mountains (Spruce 
and Silver-fir) th ote vy 
France, Besancon Forest (Spruce and Silver-fir) WA 
Baden: Black Forest, best part (Spruce and Silver-fir) 
Germany, over small areas AAs e ty, 
Germany, at suburban forest, near Frankfort (mixed 
forest) 
x) 
os & 
or oe oo co 
— 
oP ow 
+ 
a | 
imp 
oO 
These net revenues must be less than that from Kauri forest, for 
three reasons: (1) Most of the timber from these forests is less than 
half as valuable as Kauri; (2) it is produced in a colder climate of 
less tree-growth; (3) it is exposed to the dumping of the present-day 
American timber speculator, ' 
I have selected the above figures as representative of normal con- 
ditions in cuitivated European forests known to me. Figures over 
larger areas might not represent normal conditions. Thus the general 
yield-figure for the State forests of Prussia when war broke out was 
70 c. ft. per acre per year, but this has been unduly lowered by a large 
area (125,000 acres) of poor forest overburdened with old rights of usage 
(chiefly litter removal), together with ruined forest and waste land, 
that have been bought in lately and added to the area of the national 
forests. (For other forest revenues see Statistical Appendix, Part IT.) 
My ESTIMATES EASILY TESTED. 
The figures discussed above are sufficiently close to indicate the general 
trend of forest policy for the Kauri and better-class forests of New Zea- 
land. Professional foresters, with the advantage of liying permanently 
in the Dominion, will be able to frame closer estimates. An opportunity 
was lost when the Puhipuhi Forest was destroyed before a forester had 
been able to measure its growth-figure (acrim) and timber stand. But 
doubtless there are still small areas of fully-stocked Kauri forest, similar 
