414 CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES 
PROCEDURE. 
The Commission shall be empowered by the Act which brings it into 
being, to hold surveys, and thereafter, subject to Parliamentary approval, 
to schedule lands for preservation as National Parks. Lands so scheduled 
shall become subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission in three 
progressive stages. 
1. The first stage shall aim merely at the preservation of the status quo. 
There shall be no interference with sporting rights, nor with agriculture 
as existing at the time when the area was scheduled. Right of access 
shall remain as it was. But the Commission shall hold, and if need be 
exercise, a simple veto on all developments which would, in their opinion, 
affect the beauty of the area. Thus the cutting of timber, especialiy old 
timber, the damming of rivers and lochs for hydro-electric or other purposes, 
the diversion of roads, and the initiation of industrial activities of a dis- 
figuring nature, shall be prohibited. Except possibly in connection with 
the conservation of timber, no compensation shall at this stage be payable 
to the proprietors of the scheduled area. 
2. The second stage shall be the stage of limited access, i.e., access by 
certain routes and at certain seasons. With a view of such access the 
Commission shall have power, after adequate notice, to construct new 
roads, to build and maintain rest houses, to organise camping sites. 
Compensation may now become payable to the proprietor. It may, in 
whole or part, take the form of payment of maintenance costs, and relief 
from local and national taxation including death duties. The amount 
of compensation shall be settled by methods to be prescribed in the Act. 
3. The third stage shall be full possession following upon purchase. 
Any sums previously paid by way of compensation shall be reckoned as 
part of the purchase price. 
Some of the advantages of such procedure are both great and obvious. 
1. It would be possible to give immediate protection of a simple kind 
to a verv large area. 
2. If industrial development or other defacement within a scheduled 
area should be proposed, the onus of proof would rest upon the proposers, 
i.e., they would require to prove that the economic gain to the Nation 
arising out of their proposals outweighed the loss arising out of the 
destruction of amenity, in such a degree as to justify Parliament in over- 
riding the decision of the Commission. 
3. The defence against such encroachment would be undertaken by the 
Commission backed by the whole wealth of the Treasury. At present it 
is left to local Authorities, whose views may be warped by local financial 
stringency, and to those individuals (and those only) who have local 
proprietory interests. The legal expenses are heavy and irrecoverable. 
The tendency obviously is for opponents to yield to financial intimidation 
and to withdraw their opposition. ‘The case of the Nation then goes by 
default. With the Commission in charge of the defence no such situation 
could arise. 
FINANCE. 
If the action of the Commission were to be limited to the first of the 
three stages set forth above, i.e., to scheduling lands for preservation in 
their existing condition, no great annual outlays would be required. It is 
obvious, however, that preservation without ultimate access would be 
inconsistent with our whole conception of a National Park, and as soon as 
the question of increased access arises, the question of compensation and 
finally of purchase price, arises with it. 
