EROSION AND AFFORESTATION ROYAL COMMISSION REPORT. I 97 



whatever new schemes of afForestation may ultimately be 

 decided upon, to extend and improve facilities for instruction, 

 and generally to foster and encourage afForestation throughout 

 the country. The first steps necessary would no doubt be : — 



(a) To make an inspection and survey, by fully qualified 

 men, of the plantable land throughout the country ; 

 and 



(d) To ascertain what proportion of this land would be 

 reasonably available in the near future without unduly 

 interfering with existing interests. This would enable 

 the land to be duly classified. 



For example, existing leases of pasture lands, and the rights 

 of tenants to which they are subject, would have to be reckoned 

 with ; and many similar local matters would have to be adjusted, 

 whether the State or the private individual were the owner. 

 Then the next important and really urgent matter would be 

 the provision of Example or Demonstration forests. This is 

 clearly a matter for the State. The Demonstration forests ought 

 to serve as examples of good management for all time to come, 

 and experimental work should also be undertaken in them. They 

 should be situated in as many diff'erent parts of the country as 

 possible, and should also constitute a nucleus round which the 

 woodlands might extend. Such extensions might ultimately 

 have to be made partly by the State, but there is every likelihood 

 that extensive afforestation by private owners would result from 

 the State example. 



It is improbable that whole estates suitable for afforestation 

 could be obtained by purchase in suitable localities, but this 

 would be no drawback so long as the estates bought were worth 

 the money paid for them. In fact, it would be an advantage, 

 because the better land could be put to more profitable use for 

 tillage, either as small or comparatively large holdings according 

 to circumstances, and the necessary forest labour could be drawn 

 from such holdings. Many of the Crown woods in England 

 have now been put under systematic management by H.M. 

 Commissioners of Woods, and by and by these will constitute 

 valuable Example forests in the districts where they lie, but they 

 are few in number. The estate of Inverliever will also ultimately 

 provide an example of forest management under continuous 

 treatment, but it will only serve for the western part of the 



