TKANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I. The Development Commission and Forestry. 



Extracts from the Report of the Commissioners for 

 THE Year ended the 31ST of March 191 2. 



In regard to the General Position of the Commissioners and 

 the Principles of their Action, they say that from the provisions 

 of the Act establishing the Development Commission and 

 Development Fund three main results followed : first, that the 

 Commissioners themselves have no power to make grants or 

 loans from the Fund, but can only recommend expenditure 

 which needs to be authorised by the Government ; secondly, 

 that they have no executive powers ; thirdly, that they have no 

 formal and official cognizance of applications from bodies 

 other than Government Departments, and cannot report to 

 the Treasury on them until the applications have been examined 

 by and passed through the Departments concerned with their 

 subject-matter. 



For various reasons, they think that it would be a mistake 

 to suppose that the schemes already put before them are an 

 adequate measure of the funds which should properly be 

 devoted to such purposes, among others, as afforestation. 



The Commissioners consider that the improvement of inland 

 navigations, afforestation, the reclamation of land, fall into 

 the category of schemes which do not in principle differ from 

 ordinary business investments. They may be outside the usual 

 range of commercial enterprise, either because the time required 

 for their full fruition is too long, or because it is in practice 

 impossible to obtain for the individual investor a fair proportion 

 of the additional wealth which the country has gained through 

 the use of his capital. These objections do not apply to the 

 State, or apply only with reduced force ; and they do not touch 

 the principle which the Commissioners have adopted, that such 

 VOL. XXVII. part I. A 



