THE STATE AND PRIVATE OWNERS 255 



value of a wood cannot have very much effect on his nett 

 income, and the latter is the factor which influences his 

 policy in forestry matters more than any other. With 

 rates at 2s. 6d. to 5s. in the £, and an assessment of 2s. 6d. 

 to 5s. per acre, which are about the average figures in the 

 British Isles, it can scarcely be stated that rates offer a 

 more serious obstacle to profitable forestry than any other 

 features. For the planter it is certainly a grievance to 

 have to pay rates on woods under twenty years of age, but 

 this could only be equitably avoided by a special grant 

 being made to districts and counties to make good the loss, 

 or by progressively assessing the wood at a higher figure 

 as it advanced in age and value. Against the former there 

 can be no objection outside the British Treasury, but the 

 latter plan would appear to lead to endless confusion, 

 for no assessment committee or valuer could place an 

 exact value on a growing wood. An automatic increase 

 of assessment with age would be equally as unjust as the 

 present system. 



The best of all methods is probably that adopted in 

 Ireland, where the assessment is based on the government 

 valuation of the grazing value of the surface soil, and every 

 one accepts the decision arrived at without a murmur, 

 and without the constant annoyance arising from the 

 attempts of the owner to lower the value of the land, and 

 of the assessment committee to increase it. The land 

 valuation clauses of the 1909 Budget may lead to this 

 system becoming general, and the sooner the better if a 

 moderate valuation is agreed upon which takes fully into 

 account the low nett returns received from woods. No 

 system of assessment can be absolutely uniform and 

 absolutely just to the individual at one and the same 

 time. Good land may be carrying a worthless scrub, 

 which, in the owner's eyes, should not be rated at all. 

 Inferior land, by judicious planting and management, 



