46 



The Dedication of Permanent Forest Reserves. Licences. 



Such reserves will, generaly speaking, be on waste It is only in the case of scattered minor forest 



and vacant lands, but at times will require to be pur- products, where many persons are engaged over very 



chased from the native owners, and provision should wide areas in collecting barks, gums, and resins , the 



be made for this. It may be argued that to reserve value of the product should be paid for in licence tees. 



waste and vacant land is an unnecessary trouble, but This should be an exceptional method, and as far as 



the Forest Authority must know quite definitely what possible, all "getting" of forest^ products, whether tie 



are the areas that he administers, in order that he may cutting of timber or the gathering of nuts, should be 



Lay out his plans, which cover many years ahead. These covered by a permit, specifying areas and quantities, 



J r ' •* • - 1 ■ * and price per unit of measurement or weight as the 



reserves must not be subject to alteration at the whim 

 of the surrounding population, and, once agreed to, 

 should be permanent, except some very good reason to 

 the contrary is adduced. The revocation of a reserve 



case may be. 



Finances. 



.„ „. _. __ . The general rule, which has now come to be accepted 



or the amendment of its boundaries should be a matter everywhere, is that the whole of the revenue of the 

 only to be dealt with by the Lieutenant-Governor and f oregta should go back to the forests. The nation obtains 



its revenue from the timber industry, as it does from 



the Legislative Council. 



It is generally found that a second and less safe- aU other i m { ustr i es ^ [ n the form of direct and indirect 

 guarded form of forest reservation is necessary to 

 cover certain requirements. For instance: it may be 

 deemed advisable to reserve a piece of timber land until 

 the timber is cut, and then throw it open to agriculture, 

 native or imported. Such reservation might be called 

 " protected forests," and be revocable by the Commis- 

 sioner for Lands and his Board, on the Forest Authority 

 having first reported that the timber had been utilized. 



Provision for Working Plans. 



These are not the maps or blue prints of an engineer, 

 but the written plan or scheme of work which lays down 

 the method of management of an area of forest for 

 some years in advance. They lay down, among many 

 things, the maximum quantity of timber that may be 

 removed annually from a certain forest, or the maxi- 

 mum area that can be cut over in one year; tiie various 

 operations, sylvicultural and general, that are necessary 

 to assure the optimum and maximum regeneration on 

 the cut-over country. To assure a continuity ofpolicy 

 and to prevent trifling alterations, the working plans 

 should be submitted to the Lieutenant-Governor for 



approval, and, having been approved, should only be 



altered by the Lieutenant-Governor on the recommenda- 

 tion of the Forest Authority. 



Permits to Cut Timhcr. 



taxation, and there can be no argument for special 

 class-taxation — which is all that a royalty on timber 

 means if that royalty is sunk in general revenue, and 

 used for entirely other purposes than for re-establishing 

 the forests as they are cut out. Owing to the 

 general rapacity of Treasurers, it is found best, as 

 a rule, to create a special fund at the Treasury into 

 which forest revenue is paid, and from which it is 

 drawn by the Forest Authority on warrant; the money 

 so drawn being the amounts set out in the various 

 " working plans " which have already received the 

 Lieutenant-Governor's approval. 



.V general appropriation of the whole of the forest 

 revenue for the year, then, is all that appears in the 



annual estimates, and the amounts collected are 

 automatically credited to the special fund at the 

 Treasury. A scheme of expenditure should, how- 

 ever, be submitted, showing clearly how much 

 money is to be disbursed on each of the working 

 plans, and a resume should be made, showing the 

 division of expenditure into salaries and works. 



This scheme of expenditure is read in conjunction with 

 the Forest Authority's report for the previous year, in 



which appears a statement of expenditure under each 



working plan. 



In the event of the funds derived from revenue being 

 insufficient to cover the cost of the work laid down in 



These permits should be granted, subject to the general t} ie working plans, it would be for the Government to 

 regulations and to the requirements laid down in the decide whether there should be a special grant or 

 working plans governing the area of forest over which appropriation for forestry. 

 the permit is granted. The permit would be granted 

 subject also to the payment of the stumpage value of 



all timber as it is cut. A satisfactory deposit, covering 

 the value of, say, three months' cutting, is a aseful pro- 

 vision, on the application for the permit. The value 

 of the timber to tin 1 Government should be equal to 

 the eost of growing it again. Often, in fact generally, 



this figure is not accurately ascertainable at the time 



the permit is applied for, and an arbitrary value per 

 cubic foot must be fixed as near this figure as is possible. 

 It may be argued by the applicant, and he may be 



supported by members of the Government service- — even 



the Treasurer — that the value fixed is too high, and 



that it is not possihle for him to cut the timber at a 



Such an argument, supported by the usual 

 clap-trap about developing the Territory's latent re- 



profit. 



Loan Estimates. 



Cost of Plantations. 



This is an expenditure which comes naturally under 

 the heading of loan estimates. A timber plantation is 

 a reproductive work, and is a source of wealth from 



which this generation will derive very little, if any- 

 thing; while the future generations will derive all the 

 benefit, To charge the cost of making plantations 

 against forestry revenue, or against general revenue, 

 is, I think, unsound. The forestry revenue should 

 equal the cost of regenerating the natural forests, and 

 at any rate leave nothing to spare for so large a work 

 as establishing areas of plantation timber. Provision, 



however, should be made for the payment of interest 



sources, should not be listened to, unless the Govern- on the loan, and for a sinking fund. All revenue from 



ment is prepared to meet the cost of regenerating the the plantations would also be paid into the special 



forest from other revenues, forestry fund. The profit on the plantations, after 



When more than one person seeks to obtain the same paying a ll C osts, including interest and sinking fund, 



permit, then the value per cubic foot should he obtained should be more than sufficient to pay for the cost of 



by means of an auction, or by calling for tenders. The regenerating the once artificially created forest, 



upset price in the auction is the value set on the timber Jt is possible that a definition of natural forests and 



by the Forest Authority, and any increase on that plantations may clear up any misunderstanding that 



value, bid or tendered by the would-be permit-holder, may have arisen on the question of this item of finances, 



is a pleasant profit that the Forest Authority can satis- '' Natural forests" are those which were created by 



factonly utilize in developing his working plans. nature, and which have cost the country nothing. Their 



