130 AUSTRALASIA. 



timber lands one and a half million acres have been declared 

 timber reserves. It appears that the staff supposed to look 

 after the forests consists of one inspector and two rangers or 

 oailiffs. The absurdity of such an arrangement has lately 

 been brought prominently before the public by Mr. Philip 

 McMahan, the Director of the Botanic Garden at Brisbane. 

 That officer holds sound views regarding the preservation of 

 the forests, and it is hoped that his advice will be acted on. 



New Sout]i ]]\dcs. — Of the twenty million acres of timber 

 lands six million acres have been withdrawn from settlement, 

 but not in perpetuity, as the withdrawal can be revoked at 

 any time, while the whole area is occupied under pastoral 

 leases. The timber is worked out under a system of royalties 

 or licensing fees. There is no definite forest policy, nor an 

 efi'ective system of control ; the cutting of immature trees goes 

 ou everywhere ; in many parts of the forests no seed trees are 

 kept for regeneration ; there is excessive waste in conversion ; 

 in fact, the productive power of large tracts has been 

 seriously impaired. The forest branch has been bandied 

 about between the Colonial Secretarj^, the Minister of Mines, 

 the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Lands. The 

 protection of the forests is everywhere subordinate to the 

 policy of settlement. There is apparently no trained forest 

 staff, nor any forest law in force. And yet the value of the 

 forests has recently been estimated at one hundred and 

 fifty million pounds sterling ! 



SoutJt Australia. — The area of forests is under four 

 million acres, situated on the low hills in the neighbourhood 

 of Adelaide and Spencer Gulf; by far the greater part of the 

 Colony is treeless. 217,000 acres of forests have been declared 

 reserves under the forest law of 1882. Of this area only one- 

 fifth contains timber of commercial value, the rest being 

 stocked with stunted trees and scrub. There are, besides, 

 13,000 acres of plantations stocked chiefly with sugar gums, 

 pines, American ash and other trees. The reserves are 

 under the Minister of Lands, but the Governor can revoke 



