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It is desired to emphasize, however, that in addition to large areas planted to exotic tree species a very considerable area of indigenous forest is controlled by local bodies for the conservation of municipal water-supplies. The aggregate acreage is not available, but the total indigenous forest area probably exceeds the total area of exotic forest. Government Departments At least 12 Departments other than the Forest Service control forest lands, and with these the Forest Service has always co-operated in giving advice on planting and thinning, the sale of mature timber, and in measuring stands for sale, &c. During the year, the Ministry of Works planted further areas of sand-dunes and portions of Soil Conservation Reserves ; and the Lands and Survey Department and the Department of Maori Affairs undertook planting on land-development schemes for shelter purposes and woodlots. Utilization is now under way on exotic forests controlled by the Departments of Agriculture, Lands and Survey, and Mental Hospitals. Maori-owned Forests There is provision in the Forests Act, 1921-22, for the administration of Maoriowned forest lands, with the consent of the assembled owners, by the Commissioner as if they were State forests. However, no such lands have been declared " Maori forests " under this provision, though it is true that under the Act the consent of the Commissioner has been a prerequisite to any grant by the Maori Land Court or Maori Land Boards of rights to cut timber. However, Maori owners in their own interests would be well advised to consider the question of introducing some measure of proper forest management to their forests, whether by way of applying a well-planned timbersales policy in the case of forest lands which, where cleared, will be suitable for farm settlement, by managing on a long-term basis forested lands that are suited only to forest use (either productive or upland protective forest), or by afforestation of suitable open lands of non-agricultural quality. It is felt that Maori tribes are so organized as to justify from every viewpoint the management of permanent communal forests of the kind which has been so successfully administered for centuries past in various parts of the Old World. Large areas of Maori land would, under managed forest, bring to the owners a steady revenue, and they would provide permanent employment of a type for which the Maoris are eminently fitted. This will become possible, of course, only when the Maori forest owners realize the advantages of a long-term investment yielding steady returns, in contrast to a large, single, monetary return from timber-sales. During the past year, advice has been given by the Forest Service on the silvicultural treatment of a Maori exotic forest established some years ago by the Department of Maori Affairs. Also on behalf of Maori owners twenty-six timber-sale areas were appraised by the Forest Service, involving a total quantity of 57,000,000 board feet of indigenous milling timber, the sale proposals being carefully scrutinized before the Minister was recommended to give his consent. - CHAPTER V -DEVELOPMENT DIVISION: TRAINING AND RESEARCH Inspector in Charge : Mr. T. C. Birch Recruitment (1) Professional Staff. —The Professional Division of the Service has been strengthened by the addition of 8 graduate foresters from overseas. This group consisted of the balance of the successful applicants for positions advertised in 1946, together with the final group of New Zealand ex-servicemen bursars who had completed their forestry training in Britain. Four science graduates of the University of New Zealand also joined the Service.

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