VALUE OF THE NEW ZEALAND FOREST. 109 
In view of returning soldiers and urgency, I have suggested (4th 
January, 1919) that some 167 cottages and farm lots be provided now, 
and eventually about 1,000, supposing that the present timber planta- 
tions are terminated with an area of about 35,000 acres. The British 
official scale for timber plantations is one man full time per 70 acres of 
plantation, or 500 men for the New Zealand 35,000 acres. But on the 
European forest plan, working half-time on the farm and half in the 
forest, 1,000 men (or families) could thus be settled on the land. 
Such a scheme may be more attractive to some soldier settlers than 
the high-priced land of subdivided estates or the isolation and heavy 
work of the backblocks. The one-man-per-70-acre scale includes all work 
up to the felled log brought to the roadside. It excludes the sawing 
employment, which in most cases would come in too. Two-thirds of the 
Government plantations are in the Rotorua group; and near them is 
much pumice land open for settlement. At the Whakarewarewa Forest 
station is a particularly fine pasture, but it has taken some time to form 
on such land. Similar pasture might be laid down near each forest- 
labourer’s house, the interest on the cost going on to the house-rent. 
VALUE OF THE NEW ZEALAND FOREST. 
Kauri forests of great value and Kauri forests which without costing 
the State a penny could have been worked up to a normal Kauri forest 
have been destroyed for pasture, under the impression that the pastoral 
value was greater than the forestry value. The private owner must 
destroy and grass, unless he is a wealthy man and can afford to wait 
many years for a return. : 
The State has to look at the matter from other points of view—greatest 
value over periods of years, reckoning money interest; money profit to 
the State so as to reduce taxes; cheap timber and firewood for the country, 
helping permanently to keep down the cost of living; permanent settle- 
ment on the land in the smallest possible occupation areas; floods and 
soil-erosion; together with important secondary considerations such as 
climate, beauty, nature reserves, and recreation areas. To carry out 
these objects the first consideration is finance. The forestry figures for 
a normal forest are worked out above. I have taken Kauri. It is not 
difficult to take proportionate values for Totara forests and for the 
ordinary ‘‘mixed’’ forest. Beech forest will require to be considered 
separately, 
Kauri, TOTARA, AND OTHER ForRESTs. 
It will, of course, be understood, from the seale of revenue and ex- 
penditure set forth in the ‘‘ Balance-sheet ’’ above, that there are infinite 
gradations of forest from the fully stocked Kauri forest to the forest that 
will yield little for many years, and so can now only have a little spent on 
it. A forest of fair quality will at first yield profits, and afford occupa- 
tion and settlement on the soil, at about the same rate as dairying on 
poor soil, such as the ordinary Kauri-forest soil. After sixty years 
(White-pine), or eighty or a hundred years (Kauri, Rimu, or Totara), 
the cultivated forest will have become established. The net yield, 
at prices which may then be expected to prevail, will vary from about 
£10 16s. per acre per year (for a normal Kauri forest as détailed above) 
to three-quarters to one-half, or to less than this figure, depending on the 
