EMPIRE FORESTRY DINNER, I924. 7I 



the subject is one in which the returns are so slow and the 

 votes so few. We do not accuse our statesmen of lacking 

 good -will. What they really suffer from is lack of time, 

 and when so many other subjects are being brought power- 

 fully to their attention it is not wonderful that they should 

 have no leisure to listen to the gentle voice of the forester. 

 In this country, but for the war, I do not think that we should 

 now have passed the stage of inquiry in forestry. That 

 inquiry went on for years and years as we all know. The 

 Forestry Act lifted us suddenly into the sphere of action. 

 That Act had the support of every party in the State, a fact 

 which is not only a great delight but is also a great encourage- 

 ment to foresters. It also places a very strong obligation upon 

 those who have to carry the Act out to make it a success. 



" How do we stand ? The Forestry Commission was appointed 

 to achieve a definite object in a definite time with a definite 

 sum of money. The end of the first five years finds the work 

 appropriate to that period completed within the time and within 

 the expenditure allocated by Parliament. We all welcome the 

 interest which Mr Ramsay Macdonald's government takes in 

 forestry, but we do hope that that interest will not take the form 

 of pulling up the tree by the roots to see how it is growing. 

 After all, the object is to create forests for the sake of their 

 timber and for the sake of the healthy occupation they afford. 

 It is by the success in achieving this result that the organisation 

 set up by the Forestry Act ought to be judged. Any Govern- 

 ment which impedes this work will incur a grave responsibility. 

 Not many years will elapse before our Government will find the 

 country faced with a shortage of timber which, owing to 

 insufficient supplies, will lead to dangerously high prices. We 

 all agree that the Government has taken a doubly wise course 

 in looking to forestry, as it seems now to do, as the best means 

 of settling small holders in the country. 



" In this matter we all wish them more power to their elbows. I 

 trust that the Prime Minister and his colleagues will see fit to give 

 the Forestry Commission a comparatively free hand, and free them 

 from the trammels which hitherto have limited their activities." 



When this toast had been duly honoured, the Right Hon. 

 A. H. Ashbolt (Agent-General for Tasmania) being called upon 

 to propose the toast of " Forestry " remarked that with their 

 immense natural forests, the Dominions and Colonies were 



