54 FOREST CULTUEE AND 



advise to be adopted in the first instance, as well for 

 the supervision, enrichment, and utilization of our 

 native forests as far creating also new ones. On vari- 

 ous occasions I have alluded to such a plan of surveil- 

 lance before. More recently, though only passingly, 

 in a lecture delivered at this hall, I advocated the 

 formation of local Forest Boards in the different dis- 

 tricts of our colonial territory. Various considera- 

 tions led me to recommend this system. The admin- 

 istration, as an honorary one, would involve no direct 

 expenditure to the State. It would bring to bear in 

 each locality special watchfulness and local talent. 

 In each district could readily be found a few inhabit- 

 ants who not only possess some knowledge of tree- 

 culture in general, but who, also, by their direct in- 

 terest in the present and future welfare of the locality 

 in which they live, in which they gained experiences, 

 in which they hold property, and in which they rear- 

 ed a family, would be induced, as much for the sake 

 of direct and lasting advantages as from patriotic 

 motives, to devote the needful time for serving on a 

 local Forest Board. But there are still other weighty 

 advantages, which claim support for this proposition. 

 Various tracts of the Victorian territory are — as might 

 be imagined — very unlike in climate and geologic 

 structure. Each locality shows peculiar adaptabilities 

 for special trees to be selected. One district can afford, 

 by the possession of more extensive primeval forests, 

 to be far more heavily taxed in its timber resources 

 than another ; one tract of country can produce remu- 

 neratively certain trees, which it would be hopeless 

 to attempt raising in another locality. Some exten- 

 sive areas have no forests at all, and in others they 



