102 DEBATE ON SIR JOHN LUBBOCK'S MOTION. [June 



might yield a substantial revenue to their owners, and in addition be 

 an advantage to the trading and agricultural community." And the 

 same view has lieen ably advocated by the Journal of Forestry. At 

 a recent meeting of tlie Convention of Eoyal and Parliamentary 

 Burghs of Scotland, held in Edinburgh on the 8 th of April last, on 

 the motion of the Lord Provost a unanimous resolution was adopted 

 in support of the motion which he had the honour of moving. 

 Indeed, so necessary was a scientific training, that the officers intended 

 for tlie Indian Forest Service were sent to study at IsTancy. No 

 doubt that was an admirable institution; but, naturally enough, it 

 was specially adapted to Prench requirements. Por instance, one of 

 the subjects was Prench law ; again, of course, Prench technical terms 

 were used. The India Office proposed, he believed, that a part of 

 the course should in future be passed at Cooper's Hill, but that the 

 students she aid spend some time in Prance to study the practical 

 part. That, of course, was an acknowledgment, first, of the 

 advantage to be derived from systematic training, and, secondly, that 

 such advantage could not be procured in this country. He was 

 informed that, the West Indies having recently applied to the 

 Colonial Office for some one to advise them on their forest manage- 

 ment, it had been impossible to find any person in this country com- 

 petent to do so. The Cape of Good Hope and Cyprus had also been 

 compelled to entrust their forests to foreigners. They were indebted 

 to the hon. member for Dublin for several interesting reports on 

 forest management ; but he would leave his hon. friend to deal with 

 them. The present was a favourable time for the inquiry, because 

 Dr. Schlieb, the head of the Indian Porest Service, was now in 

 England, and he believed that this was also the case with his pre- 

 decessor. Dr. Brandis. This was not a case, he thought, which 

 could be left altogether to private enterprise, because a Porest School 

 necessarily required access to a considerable area of forest. He did 

 not, however, wish to commit himself to the establishment of a 

 Government school ; he thought it at least worthy of consideration 

 whether some intermediate system might be adopted which would 

 enable some one or more existing institutions to benefit by the 

 national forests. At present, the landed interest was so greatly 

 depressed that we ought not to neglect any step by which its con- 

 dition might be improved. To show the demand for timber, he 

 reminded the House that our annual import was about £16,000,000. 

 He believed that the average income derived from woodlands might 

 be substantially increased. Moreover, it w\as desirable that the 

 whole question should be investigated, before the Government com- 

 mitted themselves to a new system of training for the Indian Porest 

 officials. He trusted, therefore, that Her Majesty's Government 



