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



where else ; but there are other parts where nobody knows how to 

 cut down a tree. (Laughter.) That deficiency indicates a general 

 want of attention to the subjects. I will not enter any furtlier into 

 the matter. The subject is one of very great interest, and I have 

 some considerable hope that great utility will arise from the inquiries 

 of this Committee. I think the hon. member who has just sat 

 down did not catch exactly what I said yesterday on the subject of 

 a Select Committee that might be appointed this session. On the 

 subject to which I then referred, it would not produce a satisfactory 

 result. But with regard to the Select Committee here proposed, in 

 the first place, my hon. friend has given special reasons why at this 

 moment the appointment should be made, and, in the second place, 

 although it is true that the working time will be short, and that a 

 dissolution is likely to intervene between this session and next, still 

 a partial inquiry this session may perfectly well be made, and taken 

 up in a future session and carried on to its completion. Therefore, 

 it will be understood that we remain perfectly free with respect to 

 the direction which the inquiries of the Committee may take, and 

 the recommendations it may make, upon which it will be the duty 

 of the responsible Ministers of the Crown for the time being to pass 

 judgment. With that due and just reservation, I can give my 

 hearty support to the proposal, and I sincerely hope that very great 

 benefit may result from the Committee's labours. (Cheers.) 



Sir W. Bakttelot said that this important question had been 

 greatly neglected in this country. Few men knew how to thin a 

 plantation, and scarcely two would agree as to the proper time when 

 the thinning should take place. It was on this account that our 

 plantations in England had suffered so severely. He agreed entirely 

 with the right hon. gentleman opposite as to the area of land under 

 woods in this country. He did not think that anything like the 

 area was under wood which had been stated by some hon. members. 

 In the eastern division of Sussex they had turned their attention 

 towards the cultivation of undergrowth and underwood, with the 

 result that they found employment for large numbers of people 

 during the winter months. (Hear, hear.) In pursuing this course, 

 however, they could not shut their eyes to the fact that the value 

 of this underwood and timber had greatly depreciated, and it would 

 not be until there was a diminution of the supply from abroad that 

 the value of timber in this country would rise to a fair level. He 

 was informed, however, that nearly all the timber near the water- 

 courses of America, from Italy and Spain, had been cut, and there 

 was but little chance of many large supplies reaching us in the 

 future from those countries. He therefore hoped that we in this 

 country should not neglect planting timber which wull grow fairly 



