THE DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION AND FORESTRY. 3 



development of some of the places where the industry is carried 

 on. In the circumstances as they are, the Commissioners are 

 bound to make a selection, and the criterion imposed on them 

 by the Act is the development of the industry as a whole. 



After the general remarks from which the above notes have 

 been taken, the Commissioners proceed to deal in detail with 

 each of the purposes mentioned in the Act, and we give in 

 full the sections relating to Forestry. 



FORESTRY. 



(i.) General. 



During the year 1911-12 the Commissioners received thirteen 

 applications which fall mainly or entirely under this heading. 

 It was not always made clear what was the exact amount of 

 the advance desired ; but so far as can be ascertained, the total 

 of the advances for which application was made amounted to 

 ^114,780.^ The Commissioners have recommended for the 

 current year the grant of sums amounting to ;^i 5,460 : these 

 are in some cases only the first instalments, and imply similar 

 grants in future years, if funds are available. 



The Commissioners stated in their previous Report- the main 

 principles which they had formulated for their guidance in 

 considering British schemes and applications in respect of 

 forestry and afforestation. They may almost be reduced to 

 one, viz., that education and the provision of technical advice 

 are the best lines of advance for the immediate present. As 

 the details of the Commissioners' action are stated below, they 

 need not be set forth here; but it may be said that in accordance 

 with this principle the Commissioners have recommended grants 

 from the Development Fund of ;^5oo a year in aid of technical 

 advice and instruction at each of five centres in England and 

 Wales— Oxford, Cambridge, Cirencester, Bangor and Newcastle; 

 further grants amounting to ^1200 a year in aid of research 

 work; and a grant of ;^iooo for minor forestry experiments. 

 All these grants are necessarily provisional, pending the 

 establishment of a central demonstration area, where, in the 

 Commissioners' opinion, a great — perhaps the principal— part 



' These figures do not include several applications in which no sum was 

 expressly mentioned. - See vol. xxvi. p. 3. 



