1968 was the last major planting on the North Block of the forest as there was no further land bank and the official plan was that Herbert Forest would be 'mothballed' until the trees were mature enough to harvest.
Well this seemed to be the plan of District Office, which I suppose was the plan of Conservancy Office. It did not take into account that the workers on the forest were local people with their homes in Herbert/Waianakarua and were very loyal to the forest.
Sometimes public servants can be that way - make decisions that effect other people majorly and only worry for their own skins.
While there was no 'official' area to plant for 1969, I had prepared a good area of land, in small lots, that were unstocked for a variety of reasons. They thought I did not realise that planting a younger age group trees in such patches would cause management problems. Well I knew, and would deal with those problems when the time came - its called 'flexibility'. What was important was that there was an extra year of planting for the workers.
Then there was the release cutting a labour intensive way of removing weed growth that was suppressing newly planted seedlings. This was done using slashers. Yes, I knew that the work could be done with aerially applied chemicals and I took a little flak over that, but I was buying time.
Breakneck Road bisected the forest and was rabbit-proof fenced on each side. The fence served no useful purpose, so that was another task I kept the crew busy with by pulling it down. We stored the material for future [possible] use.
Bert Fraser farmed a 4 000 acre block of gorse-covered land in the hills behind Waianakarua. This was the guy who owned the stallion, Cassius. I went to see old Bert. He was an old bachelor, rough around the edges with many a tale attributed to him - urban myths. Perhaps.
He was sitting by the fire drinking tea when I called, and he filled a cup for me after tipping out the dregs of a previous brew. I noted the .22 rifle propped against the fireplace.
'Rabbits!' he had noticed my gaze.
Old Bert was ready to sell his land - he felt he was getting old [he used to score a hat trick in Dunedin most weekends - but could only manage two now,he told me] and the place was unprofitable as there was too much gorse. Also Cassius was past it!
The way NZFS acquired land then was for the owner to offer it at a price; the offer was considered and either accepted or declined.
I spent a few nights with Bert preparing the offer and typing it out for him. He then took it to Dunedin for his lawyer to check and send off to District Office.
We heard nothing about this at forest level, but Bert informed me sometime later that his offer was declined because of the cost of establishing forest in gorse, and the lack of need for more areas of forest at Herbert/Waianakarua. This was the outcome of a report by Geo B Wilkinson, Dunedin District Forester.
I actually considered buying the land on my own account but my accountant brother wisely pointed out the folly to me.
I went to see Allan Dick, Member of Parliament for Otago and my friend and neighbor. He understood exactly what my point of view was as he once owned Lilybank Station. He took the matter up with the Minister of Forests.
2iC Dunedin District, Percy Parker arrived at Forest Headquarters spitting tacks! The Dunedin Office as well as the Invercargill Office were upset [the word may be too mild] that HQ, Wellington had purchased the land! While at least the Dunedin Office were very sure I had 'meddled' in this issue, they did not accuse me, but for a while I felt the frost towards me from several quarters. It didn't worry me and I rubbed Percy's nose in it that day.
'Well,' my smile was wider than the Waianakrua River, for this was the first I had heard the news, 'there are 4 000 acres and I guess 2 000 plus are plantable. At a rate of 100 per year, that provides work for 20 years!'
His reply is not worth recording.
In fact there were not 20 years of planting because we upped the planting rate to 100 hectares per annum - and more. But more land was later acquired further south.
A young Forester, Clive Anstey arrived and the two of us planned the layout of the forest together. He was a supporter. Mick Hill played a major part as the D6 bulldozer operator, I flagged the roadlines with linen strips. I used an ex-army abney level to find the best gradient possible. Sometimes difficult to do and at times I was not far in front of Mick on that bulldozer! As my chainman, Colin (Hooks) Bartrum and I surveyed the roads and compartments. Just chain and compass surveys, but they were very accurate. There was nothing handy (of known origin) to tie the survey in to, so I took lines from Trigs H & I. They were easy to find actually and I have to commend those surveyors who established them in the 1860's. The rock work around Trig I is amazing!
Bill McKerrow was our Northerly neighbor - Dr Douglas was another; he was a tree man and pleased to see us purchase the land.
Bill liked the idea of getting a new boundary fence - free. But Dunedin Office were demanding that we supply the materials and the neighbor erects the fence. It had been customary that we did the whole job and Bill was aware of that, so insisted that the new fence be of concrete post & strainers and eight plain No8 wires.
Well, I wanted to compromise because there were a couple of other issues to consider. The fence should be exactly on the corrrect line - there had been too many problems arise form poorly located fences. We could not establish a satisfactory firebreak on the boundary because of unsuitable topography. Bill had thick gorse on his side of the fence too.
'Once you guys have your trees growing, I won't be able to burn my gorse, will I.' Bill asked me.
'No.' I replied.
'How am I going to control my gorse then?' he asked. Actually he had not been managing his gorse at all!
'Look Bill,' I explained, 'this is my advice to you - we will burn off and prepare you land for planting. We will put up the fence on the exact line using sercond hand materials, and you can plant trees on your side and have a forest crop and income. The firebreak will be your grass paddock.' I didn't say [or let on but he would need to put his own fence up to protect his trees.
To Dunedin Office I said, 'We will have a common boundary with Bill McKerrow and the firebreak will be his grass paddocks - he will be responsible because he is protecting his own trees; his invesment. As for the fence, we have the materials on hand, [the stuff from Breakneck Road] so the only cost we have is putting it up - so we can do that very cheaply. It will be the same as Dr Douglas. He is allowing us access through his property until the entrance road is made - that's about a year. If we put the fence up, he won't charge us for the privelege . That will make all our neighbors having the same deal.'
As it turned out, we had surplus tree seedings and they 'got planted on McKerrows side of the fence'.
Some 22 years later, Bill harvested those trees and made good money - he told me I had given him sound advice!
Funny how things turn out!
I used that information during my seminars in Tanzania.
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