000 were added to our stock last year. 
The New Zealand State Forests Act pass- 
ed in 1885 set aside large areas of Crown 
lands as State forests, and provided for 
the establishment of schools of forestry. 
But it was realised that something must 
be done to counteract the constant drain 
on our timber resources, and since the 
late Mr. H. J. Matthews was appointed 
in 1896° to supervise the reforestation 
work, considerable progress in this direc- 
tion has been made. ‘The Commissioners 
of Crown Lands act as Conseryators of 
the State forests, and under them are the 
Crown Lands rangers and timber experts, 
who help to inspect the forests and. take 
precautions against their destruction. 
Apart from forest conservation, refores- 
tation and afforestation are provided for 
by the establishment of nurseries—at 
Eweburn and Tapanui (Otago),at Hanmer 
(Canterbury), at Starborough (Marl- 
borough), at Ruatangata and Rotorua 
(Auckland). As I have said, millions 
of trees have been sown and planted in 
these localities, and care has been taken 
to select those varieties which will not 
only give the best returns when they 
reach maturity, but will grow most rap- 
idly under the climatic conditions that 
obtain here. But though IL am far from 
desiring to depreciate the good work 
done by our late Chief Forester, and by 
the Lands Department in their attempt 
to replace our rapidly disappearing na- 
tive bush, the fact remains that the total 
area so far replanted is only a little over 
12,000 acres, and this manifestly repre- 
sents a miserably inadequate provision 
for the needs of this country in the dis- 
tant future, and an entirely ineffective 
defence against the many evils which, as 
I have already shown, deforestation al- 
ways brings in its train. 
