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Training 4. Rotorua Training Centre. —Training achievements during the year were outstanding. Fifteen courses were held, at which 234 officers attended, constituting a record and extending the facilities of the Training Centre to their fullest capacity. The most notable feature of these courses has been the excellent attitude and general keenness of staff participating in them. The inclusion of field and professional officers from the Forest Service, together with clerical representatives from other Departments, has contributed to the success of the courses and improved the relationships between all ranks. The same principle was applied to field-staff courses by the inclusion of representatives of the Clerical Division. It is recognized that formal training can be a burden to both student and teacher alike, and this is a symptom of inexperience from which the Training Centre has not been entirely free. At times too fast a pace has been set, and at others the treatment of the subject-matter has lacked skill; but with the broadening experience of the instructing staff these defects are being eliminated, and results recently achieved warrant a sober optimism for the future. The attempt to combine theory with practice and bridge the gap between class-room and field has undoubtedly met with success, and this must be one of the main objectives in a forestry education. In addition to the 3 officers permanently attached to the Centre, 32 officers have delivered one or more lectures, mainly in specialized subjects. 5. The facilities of the Rotorua Training Centre are available to other Departments or countries where their work impinges on forestry, and officers from other State Departments have attended Forest Service courses. Six months' indigenous forest training was provided for a junior officer of the Fiji Forest Service, concluding in his attendance at a Timber Measurers' Course. It is anticipated that there will be further opportunity to provide staff training for Pacific Island territories. 6. Higher Forestry Education. —The problem of forestry education in New Zealand remains unsolved. Early in 1947 preliminary discussions were held between Auckland University College Council and this Service, but further meetings were deferred pending the return to New Zealand of the Inspector in Charge of Training and Research, who was engaged in investigating both higher forestry education and the organization of forest research in Europe. 7. Overseas Professional Training.—Meanwhile, with due regard to its obligation to ensure a steady intake of University-trained foresters, the Department was able to send 6 graduate officers overseas to complete their forestry education, 3 at the Australian Forestry School, Canberra, and 3at Edinburgh University. The number of graduate officers overseas is now 10, of whom 6 are at Canberra, 3 at Edinburgh and 1 at Oxford. 8. Basic Science Training.—Evidence of the advantages of a basic science degree prior to University forestry training is accumulating, and the Forest Service is confident that New Zealand foresters of the future so trained will vindicate a system which, although not as yet widely adopted, has many supporters amongst leading forestry educationists. Ten technical trainees were selected at the beginning of the year to commence University study in basic sciences with a view to higher forestry education ; 6 completed B.Sc. degrees at the end of 1949. Twenty-eight trainees are at present undertaking University studies, the majority on a part-time basis. 9. General Division Training. —In spite of the disruption of the war years, good progress has been maintained in the field-experience training of potential Forest Rangers since the inception of the trainee scheme eleven years ago. The status of Forest Ranger is earned by trainees after four to six years' training (according to progress made). These apprentice years include at least four courses at the Rotorua Training Centre and a period of training at the Waipa Sawmill. Forty-one trainees are at present being trained throughout the seven conservancies, and it is gratifying to record that the number of Rangers promoted from trainees now totals 15 (5 per cent, of the General Division staff): a proportion which will increase and which may be expected to raise

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