Pastures Past: Native timber concerns in 1948 and 1950

Detailed summary

In this week’s Pastures Past, she’s found newspaper articles on New Zealand’s native timber industry. Our native timber has had a varied life, and today finding a block of…

Conservation concerns about New Zealand's native forests were growing by the late 1940s. Photo / NZME

Kem Ormond takes a look at the world of farming back in the day. In this week’s Pastures Past, she’s found newspaper articles on New Zealand’s native timber industry.

Our native timber has had a varied life, and today finding a block of original first-growth bush that has never been logged is pretty special.

By the late 1940s, New Zealand’s native timber industry was beginning to face a changing future.

Although sawmills continued to operate throughout the country, growing concern about the future supply of native timber led to stricter controls on some species and renewed interest in conserving remaining indigenous forests.

Gradually, attention turned towards plantation forestry, particularly radiata pine, which would eventually become the mainstay of the country’s timber industry.

Below is a selection of historical stories from the Central Hawke’s Bay Press (1948) and the Wanganui Chronicle (1950).

“Although it is pleasing to know that timber production has reached a new record figure, there is also particular need to conserve our remaining native forests,” said the Commissioner of State Forests, Hon. C. F. Skinner.

That was shown particularly in the cut of native timbers, which was the highest since 1940.

Opening of the article, excerpted from NZ Herald Business. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.