EFFECT ON SOCIAL CONDITIONS loi 



merely a matter of providing pit wood for the 

 collieries — iynportant as this side, of the question is. 



It is not merely the economic necessity from the 

 national view-point of putting to their best use the 

 waste lands of the country, the present position of 

 which is a national disgrace. 



It is not merely a matter of saving some part of 

 the sum of £60,000,000 to £70,000,000 sterKng going 

 out of the country into the pocket of the foreigner 

 to pay for timber imports. 



It is not merely a question of providing for a future 

 emergency by having in the country sufficient timber 

 sto tide over a period of stress such as we have passed 

 through during the past four year^— though the 

 urgency of this view-point should have become 

 apparent to all. 



It is not only a matter of providing additional 

 work for the rural population, and so improving 

 their social conditions, urgent as this aspect of the 

 problem has become. 



The importance of the afforestation question is 

 intimately connected with all the above points. 

 But we place it on a higher plane, and give it its 

 proper. position in the economy of the nation, when 

 we consider it from the aspect of the improvement in 

 the social conditions of life of the rural inhabitants it 

 may be made to result in. With an improvement in 

 ■ these conditions you will stop wholesale emigration 

 from the rural districts, such as was taking place 

 before the war, increase the head of population on 

 the country-side, and increase accordingly the virile 

 strength and members of the nation ; whilst at the 



