224 MODERN rOREST ECONOMY. 



(£122,120.) I learn that in the year 1873-74 the forest 

 revenue was £700,000, and the expenditure £414,000 

 odds, leaving a surplus of £285,000, both revenue and 

 expenditure being about double what they were in 1874-65, 

 ten years previously. All which had been accomplished 

 not by an impoverishing of the forests, but by a pro- 

 gressive amelioration of these, and an increase of their 

 pecuniary value in something like a corresponding ratio. 



In illustration of this latter allegation, I cite the 

 following statement, made by Captain Campbell Walker, 

 in the paper On State Forestry: its Aim and Object^ read 

 before the Otago Institute, Dunedin, 21st December, 

 1876:— 



' The Chunga Munga plantation, in the Punjab, has an 

 area of 7,000 acres, commenced in 1865, contains chiefly 

 Indian blackwood (Dalhergia sissoo.) The expenditure up 

 to end of 1873 had been £26,000, including £5000 spent 

 during the first five years in unsuccessful experiments; 

 £5000 had been received from petty thinnings (firewood 

 and minor produce, grazing dues, &c.) From a careful 

 valuation, and calculations made in 1873, it is estimated 

 that the expenditure up to 1881, wheii the capital account 

 closes, will be £97,000, and the value of the plantation be 

 then £170,000. In consideiing the above results, it must 

 be borne in mind that the rainfall in the district is under 

 15 inches, with great heat in the summer, and sharp 

 frosts in winter. The whole plantation has to be irrigated 

 from a neighbouring canal, being debited with a charge of 

 4s per acre per annum for the use of the water alone. 

 Another important fact must be mentioned, viz., that, 

 whereas the land on which the plantation stands was 

 formerly almost valueless, and would not fetch an annual 

 rental of 2s per acre ; 12s, or even 20s per acre is now 

 readily obtainable, and the former has been offered for the 

 whole or any portion when cleared. The rents mentioned, 

 of course, include the water-rate of 4s per acre per annum. 

 This plantation is intended eventually to cover 80,000 

 acres, and will undoubtedly prove a great success, both as 



