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106. Registration of Sawmills.—Under the provisions of the Sawmill Registration Regulations 1942 (Serial number 1942/330), any person commencing to operate a sawmill must within one week make application to register it; and operating sawmills must be re-registered annually. Notice must be given when a sawmill cease's to operate and when change of ownership occurs. At the 31st March, 1948, a total of 608 (527) sawmills were registered—see Appendix VIII. A list of sawmills registered as at 31st March, 1947, was published in the Gazette, 1947, at page 1355. 107. Sale and Purchase of Forests.-—(a) Privately Owned Forests : During the year, 85 (198) consents to the sale and purchase of privately owned forests were granted under the provisions of Regulation 3 of the Timber Emergency Regulations 1939 (Serial number 1939/148). Consents in respect to indigenous forests totalled 61, including 19 for Maori-owned areas and 24 were for exotic forests. The reduced number of consents granted during the year is accounted for by the smaller number of transactions in small lots of standing timber. (b) Maori-owned Forests : During the year one notice was issued pursuant to Regulation 3 of the Timber Emergency Regulations 1939, as amended by Regulation 2 of Amendment No. 1 (Serial number 1943/106), which authorizes the Timber Controller to require Maori owners of forests to sell their interests to such proprietors as he may nominate. No objection was received to the notice within the prescribed twenty-one days after notice was given, and a licence was subsequently issued and forwarded to the Maori Land Court for confirmation pursuant to the Maori Land Act, 1931. Sales of Maori-owned timber require the consent of the Commissioner of State Forests pursuant to section 35 (2) of the Forests Act, 1921-22, and this was given in the case referred to above and also in the other instances where the sales were made in the normal manner through the Maori Land Board. (c) Exotic Forests (Commercial) : Four consents for sale and purchase of exotic forests owned by afforestation companies were granted during the year. All these consents were given subject to the usual conditions requiring the forest-owner to submit for approval a working plan setting out fully proposals for silvicultural management, progressive re-establishment of areas felled, and forest-fire prevention and control. Two working plans and one five-yearly revision of an existing working plan were approved during the year. One working plan is at present under revision. 108. The Timber Position : Present and Prospective.—Timber is one of the world's vital raw materials, and because it is a crop which requires a relatively long period of years to reach maturity the future position can only be assured by adequate planning and preparation for forward requirements. For this reason the supply-demand position is constantly under review to ascertain the probable trend and magnitude of the future demand for sawn timber and other forest products, and to co-ordinate it with the anticipated forest yield. The post-war survey disclosed that an immediate annual production of 420,000,000 board feet was necessary to service all requirements, and every effort was strained to reach this target with the minimum delay. The introduction of the Timber Workers' Housing Scheme towards this end was a revolutionary measure, but this year's record output completely vindicates the policy pursued ; last year's report anticipated reaching the production objective within two years, whereas actually it has been exceeded in one year. Overall timber production in the North Island now exceeds consumption, and the steadily increasing surplus over current requirements is put into stock or exported. As timber stocks have been very low throughout the past seven years, wood-users and merchants will welcome the better service now possible from increased supplies. Rising production has also largely solved the problem of zone quotas. However, although the over-all production in the North Island is now more than sufficient for local needs, the demand for certain species and grades of timber continues to exceed the supply, but, as explained in paragraph 110, is unavoidable meantime.

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