BY A. MAULT. 129 



Gazette, except from sale, and reserve to His Majesty such 

 land as he sees fit for the preservation and growth of timber." 

 Under this power 175,000 acres have, as I have before said, 

 been reserved, but so far as I can learn no special action has 

 yet been taken to preserve or grow timber on these reserves. 

 So that what is required is not only that the reserves should 

 be increased in extent, but that they should be actively and 

 practically administered so as to fulfil the object which is the 

 pretext of their reservation. 



It will be noted that in all this, when once the reserves are 

 proclaimed, there is no interference whatever with the present 

 administration of Crown lands, even that part of it which 

 deals with exploitation of timber in forest lands that are 

 not reserved. All the present system of sawmill leases and 

 timber licenses may be carried out hs set forth from page 31 

 to page 52 of the Crovni Lands Guide. I express no opinion 

 on that system if forest reserves are more expressly withdrawn 

 from its operation ; but only wish to make it clearly under- 

 stood thai the forest conservation I advocate will not in any 

 way interfere with the revenue derived by the Lands Depart- 

 ment from its leasing and licensing regulations. 



With regard to the larger forest reserves of the State, some 

 will have to be for general purposes, and some for special ; 

 and the locality selected for each of them will, of course, 

 depend on its purpose. As before mentioned, good arable 

 land is not necessary — in most cases it may be said — is not 

 desirable. Some part of every large reserve will be found to 

 possess such better quality of soil as may be desired for the 

 nursery that should be attached to every reserve. Usually 

 the larger reserves, at the time of their selection, "will con- 

 tain trees of several kinds, and of course these kinds will be 

 conserved to their maturity ; but in the long run it will 

 probably be found best to select for the permanent affores- 

 tation of each reserve the cultivation of the special tree that 

 has proved the most successful in its region. Thus, in time 

 we shall have large regional reserves of all our most market- 

 able kinds of eucalyptus, such as blue gum, peppermint, 

 stringy -bark, and iron-bark ; of pines, such as Huon, King 

 William, and celery-top ; and of blackwood, myrtle, and other 

 woods. At the same time persistent efforts should be made 

 to introduce suitable foreign timber trees for the local pro- 

 duction of industrial woods possessing qualities that are 

 warn ing in the Tasmanian ones. 



With regard to the smaller local forest reserves there will 

 probably be in many cases but a very restricted scope for 

 selection. Still the selection should be made, even if it in- 

 volve<l the reafforestation of land that has been partially 

 cleared for pastoral purposes, or has never been corered with 



