COMMENT 



We do not apologize for publishing in one number, the last of 

 this journal, three articles by the same author, which were received 

 during the summer and bear testimony not only to the assiduity, 

 but to various other virtues of the author. Mr. H. R. MacMillan, 

 until recently the efficient Chief of the Forest Branch of British 

 Columbia, as Special Commissioner of the Dominion Department 

 of Trade, spent a year in making a tour of the world to investigate 

 market conditions and possibilities of extending Itunber exports 

 from the Dominion, While on this mission, Mr. MacMillan 

 found time not only to inform himself on the general forestry 

 situation in the various countries he visited, but to record his 

 facts and findings in a series of articles for the readers of the 

 Quarterly, giving insight into forestry conditions in Ireland, 

 India, South Africa, and certain phases in France. Written while 

 still under the fresh impression of personal visit, with a singularly 

 comprehensive grasp and rare critical judgment of the situations 

 inspected, these articles are classics, and models of live reporting. 

 Our readers will find them not only full of interest in the account 

 of what other people are doing, but suggestive and helpful in 

 shaping our own policies. 



It is with great regret we have to record that, since his return, 

 Mr. MacMillan has left the Forest Branch which he had so effi- 

 ciently organized, to accept the position of Assistant Manager of 

 one of the largest companies in British Columbia, the Victoria 

 Limiber and Manufacturing Company. He thus in his own person 

 illustrates his remark, speaking of the liberality of the British 

 government, that "the lack of a defined salary policy on the 

 part of many governments ... is certain to render difficult 

 the holding of the best men. ' ' Such men are gobbled up by private 

 employers when they are recognized. The English governments 

 in their dependencies certainly compensate their officials on a 

 scale, including a pension, which binds them permanently to their 

 work and gives them a certainty of their future, entirely lacking 

 in American public service on either side of the line. 



It appears that our forecast made on page 358, regarding ups 

 and downs in the forestry movement in China, was to be realized 

 sooner than expected. It appears that the friendly Minister 



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