128 ON THE TIMBER SUPPLY OF AUSTRALIA. 



deter them from selecting land where special difficulties for the 

 raising of trees are to be expected, and thus drive further numbers 

 across the border. It may therefore be far better to give even a 

 greater bonus than that offered by the Forest Trees Planting En- 

 couragement Act of 1873 to those who will plant trees after the 

 heavy wor*k on the new farm is behind them. If at any time the 

 Legislature should decide that only perpetual leases shall be 

 granted, and not the fee-simple, the former suggestion would pro- 

 bably be of easier attainment. But the time until the fee can be 

 purchased is rather short. You cannot in fairness ask the selector 

 to plant any considerable number of trees before he has a consider- 

 able part of his selection under the plough, nor until a few good 

 harvests make him somewhat independent as regards time and 

 money. The only way which appears to me safe and fair under 

 the present law is the following : that selectors claiming an ex- 

 tension of time beyond the five or six years for paying their pur- 

 chase-money might be compelled to accept the planting of a number 

 of trees as a further condition imposed on them. We shall not 

 lose them on account of such a condition, for they have already 

 settled, and they have had time enough during the previous years 

 to get their farm in order, so as to be able to spare a little time 

 for the carrying out of such a condition. And the number of 

 selectors who will claim such an extension of time in after-years 

 may be very considerable. This condition will also give the State 

 somewhat of a quid pro quo, if the selector does merely intend to 

 crop the soil for ten years, and to leave an exhausted soil without 

 making it his permanent home. If a Government nursery be 

 near, or extensive State plantations, I believe farmers will soon 

 see the importance of such plantations and apply for established 

 seedlings. I know that in some Continental States it is even a 

 question how far private landholders can be allowed to destroy the 

 timber upon their land, whereby they may seriously affect climatic 

 influences, on which agricultural results may depend. In Tinne- 

 velly, Madras, for instance, the small clearances already made for 

 coffee plantations may have caused some small streams, previously 

 known as perennial ones, to become perfectly dry at some seasons, 

 and rushing torrents at others. And for a number of similar cases 

 I refer to the remarkable speech made in 1874 by the Premier of 

 New Zealand, the Hon. J. Vogel, especially to his extracts from 

 Dr Lindley's leading article in the Gardener's Chronicle, which 

 quotes numerous instances of humid localities having become arid 



