PROPRIETORSHIP OF THP] LAND. 187 



Then, there is the manner in which rates and taxes are 

 assessed upon woodhmds. The late Forestry Committee was 

 of opinion that it could be improved and made more just, but 

 it is a difficult su])]ect. 



Another serious matter is the question of the rates charged 

 b}^ railway companies for the carriage of British timber. These 

 rates are higher than those charged on foreign timber. The 

 Forestry Committee also dealt with this subject, and it is to he 

 hoped that the complaints of timber merchants may be taken 

 up at an early date. There is, however, one point to which 

 attention must be drawn. It was given in evidence before the 

 committee, that in most cases the foreign timber was easier to 

 handle and packed better in the trucks, so that the railway 

 companies were bound to charge something for British timber 

 over and above the amount charged for foreign timber. This 

 drawback will disappear when we begin growing cleaner timber. 



Finally, it should be mentioned that some county councils 

 have attempted to make timber merchants pay for damage 

 done to roads on account of specially heavy traffic. Such an 

 attempt is absolutely unfair and, it is to be hoped, unlawful. 

 Planted land pays rates and taxes for a long series of years 

 during which it causes little or no traffic. If the proprietor, 

 or timber merchant, which comes to the same thing, is called 

 upon to pay extra for traffic when the crop becomes mature, he 

 is made to pay rates twice over. The matter must be fought 

 out, either in the law courts, or in Parliament. 



b. The Stale as Fro/iriefor. 



It has often been urged that the State should acquire large 

 areas of surplus lands and put them under forest. Indeed, 

 an enthusiastic gentleman actually proposed that Parliament 

 should vote one million pounds a year for the next hundred 

 years, so as to purchase and afforest seven million acres of 

 land. Without going as far as that, there can be no doubt 

 that the State could do something in that direction. From 

 time to time suitable tracts of land come into the market, and 



