Watxer.—On State Forestry. xlv 
dency—the portion of India with which I have been more immediately con- 
nected—as regards the Forest Department, the policy of the Government has 
not been to produce a large surplus balance, but rather to increased libe- 
rality in the free grants of timber, and liberal concessions to the wants and 
circumstances of the poorer classes of the inhabitants. As they write so 
recently as last December to the Governor of India :— It has been the 
policy of this Government (that of Fort St. George)—a policy which has 
been approved by the Secretary of State—that the production of a surplus 
is neither the present nor ultimate primary object of forest operations ; and 
whilst seeking to increase the productive powers and revenues of the forests, 
this Government has had mainly in view the utilization of increasing 
revenues in extending plantations and in conserving indigenous forests, and 
by this means supplying the people and railways with cheap fuel, and pre- 
serving or restoring those climatic conditions which appear to be more or 
less dependent upon the existence of woodlands. The aim and object has 
indeed been to be self-supporting, and devote any surplus accruing to im- 
provements, which is exactly what I would propose to do here for some 
years, though the circumstances here are widely different and much more 
favourable to expectations of a large surplus revenue even in the immedi- 
ate future. For here we have a large area of almost virgin forest unen- 
cumbered by vested rights and privileges, whereas there we had to take 
over forests which have been more or less worked for centuries, and which 
were burdened by the claims, legal or otherwise, of a teeming native 
establishment, which in many cases more than represented the gross annual 
yield of the forests. 
I have spoken in my Dunedin paper of the results of planting operations 
in India, and do not propose to recapitulate those results this evening. I 
may state, however, that, from reports received by the last mail, I learn 
that the yield of the Eucalyptus Plantations on the Nilgheri Hills is far 
exceeding the most sanguine expectations. The Conservator and a trained 
Forest Assistant having made a careful estimate and a series of actual 
experiments, the former officially reports the yield at 1,450 cubic feet, or 
25 tons (58 cubic feet to the ton) of dry weight per acre per annum, whilst 
the indigenous forests on the Nilgheris, which have not been conserved, 
yield only half a ton per acre per annum. This speaks volumes for the 
financial benefit likely to be derived from planting the Eucalypti in some 
parts of this country, where the climate closely resembles that of the 
Nilgheris. I may mention that the average out-turn of indigenous New 
Zealand forests, as stated by saw-millers, does not exceed 15,000 superficial 
feet—1,250 cubic feet—per aere, and then it is presumed to be exhausted 
for ever. Mr. Kirk and I estimated the proper out-turn in timber, in a 
