RENT AND OTHER CHARGES. 3 1 



under lease is rated on its value as grazing land in its natural 

 condition only ; and that, under the Agricultural Rates Act, 

 agricultural land is rated on three-eighths of its annual value ; 

 it is not difficult to see that the Forest Authority would be 

 tempted to give the poorer parishes of the Highlands a 

 very wide berth. 



In a west-coast parish, with rates of los. in the £,, a rent of 

 _;;^2ooo would entail a total disbursement of ^2500 (^2000 in 

 rent, and ;^5oo in occupiers' rates), and in many cases would 

 turn what might be an economic success into a financial 

 failure. ;^5oo per annum in rates at 3 per cent, compound 

 interest will amount in seventy years to ^118,750. If the State 

 were to purchase, it would also be liable for owners' rates, and 

 this sum would therefore be doubled. 



.Some of the best land for planting on the west coast is 

 situated in parishes in which the rates are abnormally high ; 

 but these parishes, from their very poverty, are the localities in 

 which forestry would confer the greatest benefit. It would 

 be more than unfortunate if, from this very trouble, they were 

 to be ruled out of court. 



Without entering into the political side of this question, it 

 may be suggested that when a general scheme of afforestation 

 is under consideration, the question of State aid for a fixed 

 period of, say, fifty years, to districts in which a large extent 

 of forest land is taken, should also be considered. The lines 

 of the recommendations made by Lord Balfour of Burleigh 

 in the 1902 Rating Report, referred to above, might be followed 

 with advantage. 



