WarxEn.—On State Forestry. xlii 
if the forest land be not worth clearing, it had better remain uncleared till 
it is—at least till we have selected the reserves. If timber land is worth 
having, an extra £1 per aere will not prevent its being taken up. And, if 
the timber be absolutely valueless now from its situation and want of means 
of communication and transport, there is no reason that it should be so ten 
years hence. And I submit that the Colony can well afford to wait, and 
not force on the clearing of any more forest land, pending the selection 
of the reserves and development of the Publie Works policy. I repeat, 
then, my expression of opinion, that, whatever may have been advisable 
in the past, it will be well to be circumspect in dealing with the area 
remaining as forest Crown Lands, which may be approximately stated at 
12,000,000 of aeres, out of a total area of 66,000,000 of acres; and that, 
whilst the permanent reserves are being selected, the tracts not required 
for that purpose be sold or leased with care and to the best advantage, and 
not indiscriminately or without any reference to the value of timber upon 
them. Outright sale commends itself in a Colony like this, where we do 
not wish to conserve or reproduce the crop ; but I would not sell an acre 
except at a much higher price than is’ now generally obtained; failing 
which, I should lease to saw-millers, devote to felling for hand-sawyers and 
splitters, or include in pastoral leases under certain restrictions, as found 
most advantageous. I believe, by the adoption of such measures as I have 
thus sketched out, we shall secure a very considerable and increasing forest 
revenue, sufficient to balance all our expenditure and form plantations, 
whilst the reserved area is nursed, and, by degrees, treated on principles of 
scientific forestry, with a view to increasing its yield per acre, and im- 
proving the growth of timber on it where it is not simply retained for 
climatic considerations and is too remote or inaccessible to work. The 
increased forest will yield our revenue for the present, and the reserves and 
plantations which we constitute and improve from that revenue will well 
recoup us in the future. 
It may be argued that this is but taxation in another form, and not at 
all what was expected when I said that the department would be self- 
supporting. If paying for what does not belong to me be a form of taxa- 
tion, I admit that it is so; but I cannot see that anyone has any more 
right to take the forest products from the Crown—that is, public lands held 
in trust by the Government of the day—than he has from yours or mine, 
and think it will be admitted on all hands that Government have a right to 
charge him for them as you or I would. I believe there will be some diffi- 
culty with regard to miners, who consider that their £1 miners’ right gives 
them a claim to use the wood they require free of any further payment ; 
and of course if this right or privilege has been conceded to them, it must 
ot 
