76 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. 



are claimed in indefinite terms. It is hardly necessary to 

 remark, that every claim must be proved : the natural pre- 

 sumption is that the owner's enjoyment is not limited it is 

 for the person who asserts a right to any use or produce 

 limiting the enjoyment, to prove it. 



The forest estate should always possess the means of 

 referring to documents conferring rights, and if there is a 

 serious doubt about terms, the sooner a judicial decision is 

 obtained the better. Nothing is gained by "letting sleep- 

 ing dogs lie" for in this case uncertain rights are not 

 " sleeping " ; they always tend to grow more difficult to 

 settle, and are ultimately fixed in a form that perhaps was 

 never contemplated. 



It may be confidently stated that where indefinite rights 

 exist all rational management is impossible until they are 

 properly defined. 



The forest 'owner has, in general, a right to share in the 

 produce of the forest, along with the right-holders.* 



Attention should be paid (p. 64) to the legal principles 

 stated, especially as regards the limitation of undefined rights 

 to the actual needs of the person or dominant estate, and to 

 there being no right (in general) to a surplus which may be 

 sold or turned to an extra profit. Also to the limit that cannot 

 be exceeded, when the yield-power (possibilite) of the forest is 

 in question. 



On the other hand it must be borne in mind that while the 

 forest right-holder has his obligations and must submit to 

 those reasonable restrictions which are necessitated by proper 

 conservative management, the forest owner has a duty on his 

 side. He cannot adopt special methods of management (how- 

 ever desirable in themselves) that would destroy the rights ; 

 and the working-plans should be prepared with the express 

 object of providing for such rights as exist, and which 

 (especially in certain localities) are almost indispensable to the 

 welfare of the present population.! 



New rights ought never to be allowed (by neglect, etc.) to 



* See Baden-Powell, "Forest Law," p. :W7. 



f See " Forest Law," p. 294 ff, where the correlative right and duties of the 

 right-holder and forest-holder are discussed. 



