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this idea occurred to me : — Should a State allow the occupiers ot 

 forest land or land bearing large timber, be they lessees of the 

 Crown or private owners, to do just as they please with trees which, 

 may have taken hundreds of years to come to their present matur- 

 ity, or should not some restriction be placed on the occupiers, 

 much in the same way that the owner of country through which a 

 river (another natural endowment) may flow is not at liberty to 

 do all he may like with the water passing through his property ? 

 As there are riparian rights, why should not the whole population, 

 who may eventually suffer by the indiscriminate destruction of 

 forests, be protected against the ignorance, stupidity, or greed of 

 their fellow men? Fortunately we cannot easily lay hold of the 

 constituents of the air we breathe, otherwise some enterprising ( !) 

 men might establish a "corner'' in oxygen, or appropriate the 

 nitrogen for plant fertilizers ! 



I think I have stated sufficient to indicate how important to 

 the well-being of a country is the preservation of sufficient tracts 

 of forest land. In addition to this general and climatic influence, 

 other considerations may be advanced — there is the aesthetic as- 

 pect — the beauty of the scenery in its natural state, and here I 

 recall how much of the natural beauty of our Mount Lofty Range 

 — -not to go farther afield — is being marred by the destruction of 

 the timber once adorning its hills and dales. How pitiable is it to 

 see acres upon acres of dead timber probably ring-barked. I am 

 told, too, that between Mount Lofty and Mount Barker many of 

 the trees on the roadside affording so grateful a shade in our hot 

 summer months, are being cut down by District Councils, because 

 some slight damage may be done to the road by the rain dropping 

 from the over-hanging branches. In contradistinction to this, I 

 was pleased to see that in the pretty township of Hahndorf the 

 main street is planted with an avenue of umbrageous trees. Re- 

 ference might be made to the value of the eucalypt, froma health 

 point of view, rendering swampy ground free from malaria, and I 

 notice that the French Government is planting in Southern 

 France, Algeria, etc., what they describe as "these beautiful slen- 

 der trees.'' to counteract the deforestation of those parts. As a 

 profitable investment alone, forests are worth conserving and es- 

 tablishing. Great Britain even has come to realize the pressing 

 importance of the timber question, and a Commission which en- 

 quired into the subject some time ago, recommended that 

 £'2,000,000 a year should be spent on afforestation, and expressed 

 the opinion that the tendency of the supplies of timber to diminish 

 would continue, arid that in the present century a steady and very 

 considerable rise in prices may be looked for. 



Dr. Holtze, the Director of our Botanic Garden, thinks £25,000 

 a year, for say 20 or 25 years, should be spent by us in establish- 

 ing forests, and that such an expenditure would be a very hand- 

 some paying investment, as £200 an acre may be obtained in some 

 cases. In 10 or 12 years some of the trees could be utilized for 

 poles, etc. A tree will grow here as much (says Dr. Holtze) in 

 30 years as it would do in Germany in 60 years. Then quite re- 

 cently we have had allies from another source, and very enthusi- 

 astic allies, too, viz., the Bee-keepers' Association, because from 

 the flowers of the eucalypts most of the honey is obtained, and the 

 apiarists naturally look with alarm on the destruction of those 

 trees from which this wholesome food supply is obtained. Did 

 time permit, one might refer to the importance of these trees as- 

 affording food, refuge, and building-places for the birds, whose 



