30 



and under the system of measurement employed the estimated volume, on 

 which the royalty is assessed, must in nearly every case be less than the true 

 volume. In the event of an overestimate of the volume the licensee may claim 

 a remeasurement after the tree is felled; such claims are very rare. Since 

 the royalty is intended to be assessed on actual measurements and not on 

 estimates, the only satisfactory method is to measure the timber after felling, 

 and it is recommended that this system be employed in future concessions. 

 Whether the timber be measured at stump or after collection at one or more 

 convenient measuring centres is a matter for decision in each case. It has 

 been suggested that this system will cause delay and inconvenience; the 

 system, however, is the usual one employed under similar conditions in 

 Europe, India and Burma, and as long as suitable arrangements are made 

 it is not open to this objection. 



It has been proposed by certain licensees that royalty should be levied on 

 the outturn of sawn timber at the mills, 'the owners of which would be 

 required to furnish correct outturn statements. On the score of simplicity 

 this system has much to be said in favour of it. Assuming, however, that 

 outturn statements of the kind could always be relied on, this system would 

 have the disadvantage of penalizing efficient mills producing a relatively high 

 outturn of sawn material from a given volume of round timber. Again, it 

 would be extremely difficult to compare outturns of different classes of 

 material, such as large squares, scantlings, boards, railway sleepers, shingles, 

 pencil slats, etc., and -any attempt to reduce them to a common denominator 

 for the assessment of royalty would lead to great complication. The assess- 

 ment of royalty on outturn, therefore, has more to be said against it than in 

 favour of it. 



32. TIMBER CONCESSIONS. The timber leases and licences now in force 

 date from various times between 1913 and 1921. A few hold good for definite 

 periods, but in the great majority of cases no date of termination is fixed. 

 This is an unfortunate omission, since it is always desirable to provide for 

 a revision of terms or a termination of the lease or licence, should this be 

 deemed advisable, after a reasonable period. In some cases licences will ter- 

 minate as a matter of course, since the stock of marketable timber will become 

 exhausted, but in other cases their continuance may prove embarrassing if 

 their terms require revision in the light of future experience. It would be 

 advisable to limit future leases and licences to a period of not more than 

 20 years, at the. end of which time they could be made renewable, circum- 

 stances permitting, on revised terms. 



It would be well to suspend the issue of further leases or licences until 

 some progress has been made in the preparation of working plans, and then 

 to begin issuing them regularly in areas for which working plans have been 

 prepared. This should not, however, apply to cedar left standing in areas 

 felled for railway fuel, or to the extraction of dead timber. 



33. FREE TIMBER PERMITS. Existing regulations provide for the issue, 

 to settlers on whose farms there is no timber, of free permits to obtain timber 

 from Government forests, under certain restrictions, for the erection of build- 

 ings, fences, etc. There has no doubt been strong justification for such free 

 grants of timber to assist in the development of a new country, but the time 

 has now come to consider whether sufficient justification still exists. The 

 privilege in question has in one respect always operated unfairly, in that 

 settlers near the forests have had special facilities for taking advantage of 

 it whereas those living at a distance from them have had to purchase their 

 timber from sawmills. Nearly all the valuable tracts of farm land have by 

 this time been alienated in farms, and the chief reason for the issue of free 

 permits, namely, to encourage and help the earlier settlers, no longer exists. 

 There are also greater facilities now for obtaining timber from sawmills than 



