56 Presidential Address. [vor'xxxvii 



by the sympathv and encouragement of tlie sliareholding 

 community ; and I am out to impress each member with the 

 sense of his own responsibiUty. What property owner, other 

 than he who owns forest reserves, would stand idly by and 

 see his belongings damaged or deteriorated ? Until the time 

 arrives at which the would-be incendiary, timber-thief, or grass- 

 thief shall see in every approaching stranger, be he an official 

 or a private citizen, a part owner of the property on which the 

 intending malefactor has designs, this widespread forest wealth 

 — necessarily impossible of complete or effective patrol — will 

 suffer severely. Persistent checking of the offence in its 

 attempt and the reporting of offences to the authorities become 

 on tlie part of every citi/en a duty, not only to the State, but 

 to himself. There must come a time when the malefactor, 

 starting already at shadows, shall find those shadows material- 

 izing, and in every footfall sense a source of danger to his selfish 

 welfare. And in this proposed voluntary and honorary policing 

 of the forests this Club, as a participant, should have many 

 allies, for the forest has, fortunately, many aspects, as it should 

 have many friends. It does not consist of timber trees and 

 scrub only, though much of what we read might cause one to 

 think so. The multiplicity of interests and the many minor 

 industries, such as honey, oil, fibre, charcoal, fodder, tannin, 

 and other chemicals, continue to increase, so that the awakening 

 interest of the community is one of the l)est signs of the times. 

 Our nearest and most potent allies should be the Ornithological, 

 Union, the Forest League, the Royal Society, tl\e Town Planning 

 Association, and the Horticultural Societies ; l)ut there are also 

 artists and pliotographers and others with sentimental interests, 

 besides the departments and societies with ])usiness interests 

 in forest preservation, such as the Railways Tourists' Bureau, 

 the State Rivers and Water Supj^ly Commission, and the 

 Apiarists' Association. It may be regarded as a foregone con- 

 clusion that practical help from all of these (•oml)ined or from 

 a group; or, indeed, from any one of thtni. would be appreciated 

 and welcomed by the Oovernment. 



The reliabilitation of the forest area lias ;ill the world over 

 become a serious problem. In ICtirope the military destruction 

 of forests has been enormous. ICnrojx- is looking to North 

 America for supplies from the supposedly unlimited resources 

 of that country. Jiut usage and waste in the United States 

 and Canada before and during the war were together greater 

 than replacement by artificial means and natural regeneration, 

 and there have been strong protests against further exportation 

 in view of homo requirements. Importations from the United 

 States and Scandinavia will never again be what they were, 

 owing to our own planting of coniferous woods and our present 

 scheme of conservation of the hardwood forests now being put 



