ROYAL COMMISSION, 1906 41 



ment of lecturers in Forestry at collegiate centres, 

 such as Bangor, Newcastle, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. 

 A lecturer in Forestry had been appointed at Edin- 

 burgh University in 1889, the first University ap- 

 pointment of its kind. This was a strong move in 

 the right direction. Another good departure was 

 the creation in 1904 by the Commissioners of Woods 

 and Forests of a School for Forest Apprentices 

 in the Forest of Dean, and in 1905 of a similar 

 School in Ireland at Avondale in County Wicklow. 



In 1908 the Department of Agriculture in Ireland 

 appointed a Committee to consider the question of 

 afforestation in that country. It recommended a 

 fairly extensive scheme for the planting of 700,000 

 acres, and purchases of land for the purpose were 

 subsequently commenced. 



In 1906 a bigger effort was made a Royal Com- 

 mission this time 'the Royal Commission on Coast 

 Erosion and Afforestation coming into being. The 

 report, based on a mass of evidence and the examina- 

 tion of a host of witnesses, appeared in 1909. The 

 unemployment scare was on at the time, and 

 unfortunately the recommendations of this Com- 

 mission became involved, and wrongly involved as 

 we now know, with the question of making use of 

 the unemployed in planting work. It was held 

 that the unemployed townsmen would not be able 

 to learn to use a spade nor stand the exposure. We 

 are wiser now, since so many thousands of them 

 have quickly learnt to use entrenching tools and 

 have stood in a marvellous manner the far greater 

 exposure of the trenches in France in the winter. It 



