CONTINENTAL NOTES GERMANY. 1 83 



At the next sitting of the Council, which took place in Strass- 

 burg in September 1907, Dr Enders (Munich) submitted his 

 theses No. i and 2 as a resolution. Mr Riebel (Munden) 

 opposed, and recommended that no resolution whatever should 

 be put, because the question of forest education was not a 

 national one. It had no effect beyond the boundaries of each 

 individual State, and was therefore one which each government 

 had to decide for itself; a resolution passed by a general 

 German forest committee could consequently have no practical 

 result. The directors of three qther high schools also spoke 

 in favour of the retention of high schools, and desired a 

 declaration to the effect that none of the existing methods of 

 forest education could be considered as unjustifiable. The 

 high school party had, however, but few friends beside their 

 directorial champions, and the following amendment to the 

 original proposal was finally accepted : — ■" The entire higher 

 forest education should be given at a university, and should 

 be arranged for a minimum period of four years." 



On the following day the subject was once more brought up 

 before the general German Forest Conference, also assembled at 

 Strassburg. An attempt was made to interest the profession 

 in a proposal to raise the standard of the technical schools, so 

 as to render them entirely independent of university teaching. 

 The proposal, however, collapsed when it was pointed out that 

 this would only mean the creation of new small universities, 

 unable to compete with the existing large scientific centres. In 

 conclusion, the resolution, as accepted by the Forest Council, 

 was approved by a great majority. This is how the question 

 of higher forest education stands at present in Germany. It 

 is evident that professional opinion is, even in Prussia, almost 

 entirely in favour of an exclusive university education. The posi- 

 tion the various governments will take in regard to this problem 

 lies, however, on the knees of the gods, and the extremely 

 diplomatic statement made by a high official, delegated by the 

 Prussian Government, sheds but a scanty light on the question. 



It is to be noted that all parties agree that instruction forests 

 in the immediate vicinity of centres of instruction, so to say for 

 daily use, are essential, but that they need not be school forests, 

 such as are attached to the Prussian academies. ^ 



^ This statement may be noted in connection with practical instruction in 

 Scotland. — Hon. Ed. 



