22 



keep that subject forward in the position to which it was 

 certainly assigned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer when 

 that Commission was first appointed. While in those major 

 operations which require large sums of money there has been a 

 standstill, in other matters progress has been made, and under 

 Mr Sutherland's guidance the Department of which he is the 

 head has become, and is becoming every month more and 

 more of real value to forestry in Scotland. That Department 

 has done a great deal of useful work within the last twelve 

 months. Take, for instance, the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. 

 We were immensely assisted by the fact that we received a sum 

 of ^150 from the Board of Agriculture towards the expenses 

 of entertaining the foreign guests. Then a number of useful 

 leaflets on the different subjects have been circulated. Then, 

 too — Mr Sutherland spoke very modestly on the subject — the 

 necessities of the war found his Department quite alive, and 

 thanks to its intervention, an arrangement was made with 

 the railways that must have made an immense difference in 

 the bringing of pit-timber to pits from woods at a great distance, 

 the rate being reduced to a maximum of los. during the war. 

 He also took up the matter of the important by-product of 

 potash salts. And then there is that step in advance, the 

 appointment of Advisory Officers, which will make for every 

 working forester who wishes to carry out his work on scientific 

 lines a very great difference, and will open up a very great 

 opportunity. In all those matters advance has been made, and 

 therefore as one who has had more than once, in fact very often 

 indeed, to pitch into Government Departments for their want of 

 attention and want of sympathy, I should like if I might on this 

 occasion say, that we all owe a great debt of gratitude to 

 Mr Sutherland for the work he has been doing on our behalf 

 during the last twelve months." 



On the motion of Mr James Whitton, Glasgow, the Chairman 

 received a cordial vote of thanks for presiding. 



