90 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



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does little damage, and agricultural lands, over which immunity 

 from floods must be secured." 



"By river improvements, drainage, and reclamation from 

 the sea and inland waters and of the fen lands, and also by the 

 reclamation of moorland wastes, large additions can be made 

 to the arable and the pasture lands of this country. 



" No time should be lost. Why should we import our food- 

 stuffs if by an effort we can remove the lethargy, if not the 

 indifference, of the past, and can largely provide ourselves? 



" By commencing at once we can correct many things and 

 help ourselves to a large extent immediately, although it may 

 take many years before we can reap the full benefit; but there 

 seems no reason to doubt that in course of time the United 

 Kingdom would be in a position to supply its own simple 

 necessities : and if instead we say the United Empire, then 

 indeed we can provide for all our wants. 



"Now is the time for the authorities to set about instituting a 

 searching inquiry into all matters bearing on economic subjects, 

 and be prepared to commence relief works of utility of all kinds 

 as soon as our gallant soldiers return, and in no more suitable 

 situations can they be employed than in their own part of the 

 country and among their own friends." 



9. The Forests of New Zealand. 



Mr D. E. Hutchins has been preparing for the Government 

 of the Dominion a report on the forests of New Zealand. Some 

 extracts from this report appear in T/ie Dominion for loth 

 November last, and we reproduce these below. 



The forests of New Zealand, Mr Hutchins observes at the 

 outset, are, after the climate, the best natural asset possessed 

 by the Dominion. They have escaped development solely 

 because New Zealand has been developed by men coming from 

 a country where there is no State forestry. " The coal-fields 

 and gold-fields," he continues, "have been examined by 

 engineers and geologists. If a fraction of the development 

 that has been put into coal-mines and gold-mines had been 

 bestowed on the forests, they would now be more valuable 

 national assets than the coal-mines and gold-mines put together. 



