PROJECTED LEGISLATION ON FORESTRY. 217 



the Committee further reserve to themselves the right so 

 to formulate the paragraph that most persons, without arxy 

 special knowledge of forestry, may be able to judge of 

 the damage done. Uncertainty in this law were, however, 

 a great evil, not only for those who may break it, but for 

 law-abiding citizens, whom revenge or ill-will might seek 

 to visit with undeserved penalties, and therefore it is better 

 that some offenders should escape than that law-abiding 

 citizens should be unjustly punished. 



' Respecting spots which have been leased out to tenants 

 the Committee seek to strengthen the stated provisions, 

 by enacting that the wood on such spots shall be protected 

 thus : In the paragraph on forest lands appertaining to 

 outlying settlements, intended to replace section 37 in the 

 existing statutes for 1851, the Committee has proposed 

 that the person or persons renting the property, or profiting 

 by it, shall also be liable as well as the proprietor. Jn 

 other cases, where persons renting, &c., have the right to 

 take wood for house use, the Committee have proposed 

 that such right shall not be recognised until he has 

 expressly consented to respect the above-mentioned regula- 

 tions. In this way the Committee hope that misuse and 

 abuse of the forests in such circumstances will be lessened, 

 if not prevented, a matter, the importance of which will be 

 recognised, seeing that, according to the calculation of the 

 Committee of 1874, such misuse and abuse apply to no less 

 than 4-5ths of the existing forests in turning them to use. 



' The three first chapters in the Forest Laws, proposed by 

 the last Forest Committee, deal with forests belonging 

 immediately to the Crown ; with forests on common lands, 

 and with forests managed in common, as also with those 

 on private estates. We have given a summary of the 

 main contents of these.. The last section of the chapter 

 deals with Svedanje, Kyttande, and forest fires, with the 

 penalty for destroying forests, together with the penalties 

 for other violations of the forest code, and last of all it 

 contains certain single statutes. 



