124 COLONIAL REPORTS MISCELLANEOUS. 



of the choicest logs were selected from each for export, the 

 balance were left to rot in the forests. Sometimes no logs at all 

 were selected from the felled trees, and the latter needlessly 

 destroyed and their value as seed bearers lost to the forests. 



Similarly, experience has shown that in the case of mahoganies, 

 cedars, and the Odouni (Cliloropliora excelsa) the average yield of 

 logs per tree of individuals possessing a larger girth than 12 feet 

 is three, and the 'Government's share of the revenue is based on 

 the all-round sum of 10s. per log of trees belonging to those 

 species. Including the share that goes to the native communities 

 (grantors of the licence), the incidence of taxation amounts to 

 165. Sd. per log, which is by no means heavy, as the following 

 estimate will .show. 



It is based on low figures for the superficial contents of the 

 logs, their lengths, and the price obtained in the home markets. 

 Experience has shown that trees 12 feet and over in girth yield 

 at least three logs of the low dimensions given below viz., logs 

 10 feet in circumference, or, what amounts to the same thing, 

 logs having the sectional area equal to that of a circle of the 

 above circumference. 



The length of such a log would on the average exceed 16 feet, 

 but the latter figure will be taken so as to give the merchants the 

 benefit, and the cubical content would in each case equal (~V L )' x 

 16 cubic feet, which is equal to 100 cubic feet. This is equivalent 

 to 1,200 superficial feet. As the merchant gets credit at Liver- 

 pool for only two-thirds of the total superficial contents of a log, 

 he will be paid only for x 1,200 or 800 superficial feet. Now 

 fair all-round mahogany and cedar wood sell at an average price 

 of 3d. per superficial foot, so on this assumption the merchant 

 will realise 800 x fV x ^j = 10 per log, on which he has to 

 pay a tax of 16s. 8d. This amounts to an incidence of taxation 

 equivalent to |fo or S per cent. 



With larger logs and the same price the taxation would be 

 lighter, but the case has been purposely put in the worst possible 

 light from the point of view of the merchant to show that even 

 under those conditions the tax is by no means an excessive one. 

 I think in actual practice it will be found to be about equal to a 

 5 to 6 per cent, ad valorem tax. 



Of course, ?he imposition of such a tax will be strongly opposed 

 by timber merchants of the Gold Coast, but it has been found to 

 work very well, despite protests on the part of the merchants, in 

 Southern Nigeria, and timber concessions are as eagerly sought 

 for there now, since this duty was levied, as they were before 

 under the old rates. These woods are a valuable asset to the 

 natives and the paramount Government, and are worth to them 

 as sources of revenue every bit of the tax proposed. Another 

 point is that the timber industry of the Gold 'Coast is greatly 

 in need of being placed on a sound footing ; at present a large 

 number of undesirable persons of little or no financial stability, 

 and who have in addition become heavily involved in mining 

 speculation, are engaged in it, and have given it that hand-to- 



