THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON AFFORESTATION. 185 



exploitation, and that the profits should be divided pro rata ; 

 but there are many other points to be considered before a 

 practical working-scheme can be formed. It is essential that 

 the Government should have full power of control over the 

 management of such property through such agency as they 

 may appoint, but as a co-proprietor the State should naturally 

 become pro rata responsible for rates, taxes, and death duties. 

 A most reasonable concession, and one which should go a long 

 way to solving the problem, would be that no assessment should 

 be levied until the property begins to yield, and that no death 

 duties should be payable on immature crops ; also that when 

 either payment becomes due, the proprietor and the State should 

 pay it pro rata. In cases where the proprietor desires to 

 pay the cost of afforestation and management himself, similar 

 concessions might reasonably be made, should he elect to work 

 his property in accordance with a plan laid down by the forest 

 authorities appointed for this purpose, and under their control. 

 The difficulty as regards shooting in both classes of forests 

 exists, but might be overcome. 



The almost entire absence from the list of witnesses before 

 the Royal Commission of the class of men most vitally 

 interested in the land, shows that, from the outset, it was never 

 intended to consider the question from their point of view, and 

 that the suggestions made in paragraph 93 of the Report were 

 nothing but a sop offered to them. The neglect of the land- 

 owner was the most fatal mistake the Commissioners could have 

 made, for the country would never stand such wholesale inter- 

 ference with private rights unless the necessity for doing so were 

 proved up to the hilt. It is not at all necessary that the State 

 should, as the Royal Commissioners propose, hold the whole or 

 even the greater part of the forest area of the country ; but it is 

 essential that it should show the way in practical work on a 

 large scale, and I can see no reason why suitable land should 

 not at once be acquired by private treaty, and why practical 

 afforestation should not be begun forthwith, for the Com- 

 mission have made out a good case showing that this would 

 be a safe investment to which no Treasury need object. 



It is not necessary that such areas should be in large 

 compact blocks, so long as the aggregate in one locality is 

 sufficiently extensive to give prospects of profitable local 

 conversion of the timber produced, as the railways carry all 



VOL. XXII. PART II. N 



