G.—3

32

Revenue rhceived prom Royalties anu Sales op Native Timbers. The revenue received during the year as royalties and rents from State forests was £10,404 12s. 9d., of which £9,204 was received through the local offices and the balance through other sources. This was paid into the State Forests Account. The revenue received from licenses and sales of timber on national-endowment lauds was £10,226. The revenue received from timber licenses and sales of timber on. Crown lands was £12,817. The total of above amounts was £32,247. Royalties on Timber increased Though for a considerable number of years the price of timber had been steadily rising, the royalties received for timber cut on State lands had remained unaltered. The result was that the royalties had become quite disproportionate to the values of the converted timber. It was therefore decided to raise the royalties, and a new scale was gazetted in February. Even with the increases the new royalties bear a smaller proportion to the value of the converted timber than is the case in most countries where the forests are under organized management. Increase in Prices ok Timber. The prices given below are prices in Wellington, and are higher than the prices of the same timbers in other towns, but they serve for purposes of comparison. The enhanced values that our chief timbers have reached will tend to restrict their use for many purposes, and for such purposes our inferior timbers will in the future be used. Another result of the rise is likely after the war to be the importation of soft woods from other countries.

Price per 100 Superficial Feet.

Duration op Supplies. Without a survey it is impossible to give the area of land carrying commercial forest nor, except in the case of kauri, can more than a guess be made of the amount of the various millingtimbers that our forests contain. Kauri is our most valuable milling-timber, but if the present annual rate (52,000,000 ft.) of cutting is continued our supply will not last more than seven years. As stated above, the largest output of timber is from the Auckland Land District, but it is estimated that at the past rate of conversion the present stand of all timbers in that district will not last twenty years. In the Taranaki and Hawke's Bay districts there are only a few small areas of milling forest left, whilst in the Wellington Land District the milling forest, which is confined to the Waimarino, will last little more than a decade. In the South Island there is no milling forest left in the Canterbury Land District; in Nelson and .Marlborough the area is very small; in the Otago District the milling forest produces scarcely enough timber for the present local consumption. In Southland there is still a fair area of milling forest, but the Commissioner of Crown Lands estimates that the red-pine will be exhausted in about years, and the white-pine in about sixteen years. This estimate docs not, however, allow for the largely increased demands on Southland forests that will be the result of the exhaustion of the supplies in other districts. Black-pine and totara are not plentiful, but occur sporadically in the forest. Beach is plentiful, but, being what is technically termed a hard wood, it cannot fully take the place of soft woods. The largest forest of commercial timber is now in Westland, but the Commissioner for that district estimates that the milling-timbers (rimu and white-pine) will at the present rate of cutting last only about twenty years. The great expansion that has occurred in recent years in the dairy and fruit industries, together with the great demand that there has been in Australia for our white-pine, has caused heavy cuttings to be made of this timber. The forests of pure white-pine that used to exist on tlie extensive swamp lands of the Auckland District have almost gone, and the time is close at hand when the white-pine scattered in our mixed timber forests will be insufficient to supply the demand. Puriri and silver-pine, both so valuable for railway-sleepers, have almost gone, and their place is now being taken by imported Australian hardwoods or ferro-concrete. Except in the case of hardwoods, the exhaustion of the supply of one kind of timber usually results in an increased use of other supplies of an inferior timber, or in the importation of a foreign timber technically as useful but generally more expensive.

L909. >17. Ordinary Building. Clean Heart. Ordinary Building. Clean Heart !imu /hite-pine [atai [auri s. d. 14 6 13 6 a. d. 24 0 8. 16 J6 d. 0 6* s. d. 35 0 22 6 29 6 33 0 43 0 ♦Clean sap white-pine suitable for butter-boxes and cooperage is 19s. per 100 superficial feet.