lO 



essays, but the mere fact that you can get children to think 

 voluntarily about forestry, and to go out and look for themselves, 

 using their own minds and getting interested in the subject and 

 making it a hobby, is, I think, a very much greater advantage 

 really than having an essay, however good and well written, 

 which has been done possibly under the eye of a schoolmaster. 

 Then although Mr Massie was not quite satisfied with the 

 number of members that we got last year, I believe the number 

 was considerably above the average, and I think it is gratifying 

 that we got so many. At the same time his advice and appeal 

 should be acted on. It is little use sending out an appeal by 

 the President and the Secretary if the members are not going 

 to help, and I would therefore appeal to all members to look 

 out for recruits. 



" Then with regard to the Show, there is a small personal 

 matter. I think at the last meeting here people thought I was 

 rather drawing the long bow with regard to a certain new tree 

 that we have been trying to introduce, the hybrid larch, and 

 I am glad that I was able to give optical proof that the hybrid 

 larch is a very real and a very good tree that we can really 

 establish. I think we have certainly more or less fixed the 

 species, for the second generation, so far as we can gather, is 

 just as good as the first generation. 



"The coal strike, of course, hit us very badly, and the 

 depression in all the industries since that date has made home 

 timber unsaleable. But even if we had a market, we are 

 throttled at our own doors. Competing timber from abroad is 

 still coming in at rates that would make home-grown timber 

 a success but for railway rates. I do not personally, and 

 speaking on behalf of other growers, complain of fair competition, 

 but to deliberately penalise home produce by impossible freights 

 as against foreign produce is not only bad for the country but 

 it is bad for forestry, and I think bad business for the railways. 

 But you have also to remember the railways are not entirely 

 free agents now. I know at least one railway which would be 

 only too glad to lower freights, if it could be arranged with the 

 Central Committee which now manages our affairs so far as 

 railways and their freights are concerned. I hope that this 

 Central Committee will take to heart the fact that if they do 

 not do something with regard to freights, they are simply going 

 to throttle what ought to be one of our greatest industries. 



