PROJECTED LEGISLATION ON FORESTRY. 213 



ties, and managed conjointly, the Committee have boldly 

 ventured to lay down regulations respecting the manage- 

 ment of woods on land gifted to a town. On the other 

 hand, the Committee have not, in their proposal for a new 

 Forest law, taken up the plan mooted by the Committee 

 of 1879, that a greater or less portion of woods belonging 

 to town communities should be left unchanged, in case 

 different portions or arrangements of the forest thus 

 attached render it unsuitable for the application of the 

 contemplated laws of forest economy ; and that such por- 

 tions should be placed under communal management. This, 

 according to the views of the Committee, is opposed to 

 the otherwise valid principle that he has the testimony in 

 his favour who has enclosed. The said proposal seems also 

 unjust, in so far as it introduces a difference in the law 

 with regard to the profiting from forests, in circumstances 

 in which the property has been acquired by the owner 

 subject to the same conditions as others, and that merely 

 on the ground that the (storskiftet) great enclosure may 

 be made in the case of one town and not in the case of 

 another. The proposed arrangement seems unfortunate 

 for those who are required to administer the communal 

 portion of the forest. For, according to all experience, the 

 Committee remark, it is an unavoidable condition to a 

 business association working progressively, that the part- 

 ners should maintain uninterrupted respect and considera- 

 tion for each other ; but this can hardly be expected when 

 the association is brought compulsorily together, and 

 without regard to the personal peculiarities of the partners, 

 as would be the case through the limitation of the indi- 

 vidual freedom of the partners, arising from the formerly 

 mentioned conditions, that the association is indissoluble, 

 and must follow in its management a plan dictated by the 

 Forest Department. 



' In order to avoid the hindrance which the present law 

 lays in the way of the continuous existence of agree- 

 ments about the common management of the forests of 

 several proprietors, where such agreements can be brought 



