2 ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, NOVEMBER 6, 1872. 



press on seeking to add our quota towards the stock of mutual help 

 and general information, which can only he increased by individual 

 effort. 



We who are met together on this occasion are, with few exceptions, 

 practical foresters, and it is as such that I am proud to address you. 

 As foresters loving our calling, we are in constant converse with 

 nature, but we are none the less a busy people, with our hands 

 generally full. We have for the most part as much to do as we can 

 do well, in discharging the routine duties of our position, often more 

 than any ordinary strength or industry can dispatch in a satisfactory 

 manner. We are, therefore, rarely inclined to travel out of the 

 record — to undertake work which does not press. We can seldom 

 get far enough before our duties, or high enough above them to con- 

 template them ah extra, and as a whole, to speculate, classify, con- 

 solidate, or systematise. We answer the immediate call ; we meet 

 the immediate claim ; we provide for the immediate emergency ; we 

 are practical men of business, not philosophers ; Ave apply ourselves 

 energetically to understand and transact whatever affair is before 

 us ; but we scarcely ever find time to regard questions in their con- 

 nections and with reference to long eras or to distant generations. 

 What is forced upon us we do; what is not forced upon us we 

 postpone. 



This, I take it, is the case of most of those I am addressing. For 

 myself, many of the best years of my life have been spent in the 

 direct charge of very extensive forests, and I can therefore sympathise 

 very keenly with those who feel that the engrossing nature of the 

 duties of to-day interferes with that foreseeing provision for the 

 future which distinguishes the profession of a forester more perhaps 

 than any other. Not that I mean to convey that the life of a 

 forester can be lived without thought, and much thought being 

 given to the effect on the future of the labours of to-day; but all 

 must feel that the day's need too frequently overshadows the 

 morrow's requirement, however strongly they may realise that a 

 forester who makes no provision for the wants of the future is un- 

 worthy of that title. 



And it is in managing forests of small extent, such as many whom 

 I address have charge of, and the property of private individuals, 

 whose circumstances rarely admit of their sacrificing the present to 

 the future, that the truth of my remarks becomes more apparent. 

 Few private individuals can afford to take that higher view of 

 forest conservancy which wishes to make provision for generations 



