215 



Remarks on Propositions. 



Section I. 



1. When reserves are the property of private persons, as in 

 Mauritius, it gives rise to a number of troublesome and 

 vexatious prosecutions. The land is looked upon by its 

 owner as his own property, but he is debarred by law from 

 enjoying any benefit from it. 



2. When land forming a reserve is Government property, 

 that property may be mauaged in the manner most beneficial 

 to the public interest. 



3. To prevent exorbitant prices being paid for land to form 

 reserves, and give owner what neutral persons consider to be 

 the fair value of it. 



4. Permission to fell timber on land forming part of a 

 reserve is what the owner is entitled to, thus enabling him to 

 derive benefit from his land, when for important reasons he 

 might be unwilling to sell it. At the same time, if the land 

 were unwooded, it might cause great injury to the community, 

 were it the watershed of any river or stream supplying a 

 town or thickly populated district with water for domestic 

 use and as a motive-power for machinery. 



5. This will prevent such land being unwooded, and will 

 tend to ensure due punishment for reckless destruction of 

 trees. 



Section II. — Mountain Reserves. 



6. This article does not require explanation, and I would 

 propose that high- water mark, i.e., the place on the shore 

 where the land plants begin to grow, be considered sea- 

 level ; a difference of 6 feet might cause an act committed 

 at a certain place to be a contravention or not, depending on 

 whether the base, from which the elevation was taken, were 

 high or low water mark. 



7. If the sea were taken for the base of the mountains in 

 the interior of the large islands, it would either cause an un- 

 necessary amount of land to keep as reserves, or it would 



