REPORT OK THE GENERAL MEETING. 9 



in so far as none of the members whom it is proposed to appoint 

 may have any practical or scientific knowledge of silviculture.'" 

 Mr W. H. Menmuir. — "I have great pleasure in seconding, 

 although I was dead against a Central Forest Authority in 

 England. I disagree with the way this Bill is to be worked. 

 There is no mention in the Bill that any of the Commissioners 

 are to be Scotsmen. We ought to see that the forest policy of 

 Scotland is worked thoroughly in Scotland. Mr Richardson is 

 quite within his rights in asking for a proper point of view in 

 regard to Scottish forestry. We want to see men in Scotland 

 who are capable of carrying out practical forestry, and also some 

 who have a knowledge of theoretical forestry, getting posts under 

 this scheme." 



Sir John Stirling-Maxwell. — " As a member of the Committee 

 upon whose recommendations this Bill is based, I wish to say 

 that the fears which have been expressed by the last two 

 speakers, although natural, are quite groundless. I think I 

 am right in saying that no Bill ever meets the kind of points 

 which they have raised. Those are points which come up in 

 debate on the Bill, and no doubt they will be discussed in 

 Parliament. The object of the Bill is to give the Government 

 powers to carry out the forestry policy, and the Bill is directed 

 to that object, and to no other. As regards the character of the 

 appointments to be made as representing our country upon the 

 Central Authority, we can judge pretty well from what the 

 Government has actually done. They have instituted an 

 Interim Authority which I imagine, if the ordinary practice is 

 followed, will become the permanent Authority as soon as the 

 Bill is passed. On that Interim Authority we have more than 

 our share of Scotsmen. There are Lord Lovat, Colonel 

 Fothringham, Mr M'Callum Scott, one of our Scottish 

 representatives in the House of Commons, and another, 

 Lord Clinton, is as much connected with Scotland as with 

 England, though of English birth. That surely is a strong 

 enough representation on a body of seven, and I have no 

 reason to suppose that with regard to the Executive Department 

 in Scotland, the ordinary practice will not be followed, and the 

 Department over which Mr Sutherland presides here, will go 

 bodily over to the Commissioners, and that he will remain in 

 charge of forestry in Scotland. All those things would naturally 

 follow, but it would be quite contrary to precedent to put these 



