xlvi Appendix. 
portion of the Seaward Bush, Invercargill, at close on 31,000 superficial 
feet—say 2,500 cubic feet; but it must be remembered that, under the 
present system, much timber which would be utilized elsewhere is discarded 
as worthless, and all small stuff is considered utterly valueless. I am in 
correspondence with the Chief Engineer on the subject of making use of it 
for the railway locomotives wherever practicable; and if we can thus find a 
market for it even at very little over price of actual haulage and sawing into 
billets, I consider that a great boon will be conferred on the saw-mill 
industry and the colony. 
Leaving India, and turning to the Continent of Europe, I find that the 
annual revenue of the Forest Department in Prussia is £2,100,000, dis- 
bursements rather more than half, leaving a nett profit of £1,000,000, the 
disbursements including an item of £75,000 for commutation of forest 
rights and servitudes. The nett profit in Saxony is £249,000; Bavaria, 
£596,000 ; Austria, £90,000 ; Hanover, £162,000; whilst that of some of 
the smaller States, for which I have not returns in money, must be much 
greater in proportion, if we take their yield in timber as a guide. I may 
mention that, in Bavaria, the proportion of forest to total area is 94:4 per 
cent., or upwards of one acre per head of population. This is the largest 
area, in proportion to total extent or head of population, of any State in 
the German Empire. 
In the debates on the Forest question, in the House of Representatives 
here, in 1874, I observe that several members took exception to Sir Julius 
Vogel’s original Forest Bill, which was subsequently withdrawn on the 
ground that the conservation of the natural forests would not pay, judging 
from the results obtained in Germany, Austria, etc. I do not think that 
any such conclusion can be deduced from the published returns. Not only 
do they in most cases show a fair rental, amounting, in the case of Saxony, 
to 12s. 6d. per acre, but it must be borne in mind that much of the total 
area under conservancy on which the rental is calculated, is unproductive, 
only partially stocked, or subject to the free supply of the villagers and 
their right to pasture their cattle, and collect straw, litter, etc., therein, for 
which there is no money return. I have seen many instances in Germany 
and India in which the whole annual yield of a forest tract went to the 
inhabitants of neighbouring villages free of charge, thereby decreasing very 
considerably the annual revenue per acre calculated in the total area. We 
have no such rights and vested interests to lower the money return from 
the New Zealand forests ; but it is true that we have at present a limited 
demand, owing to the sparse population ; an evil, if it be an evil, which, if 
I may judge from the number of young New Zealanders one sees in every 
village, is fast remedying itself from natural causes, not to mention the 
