Introduction. 



ix., 



During the same session, a " Eeport on Forest Reserves " was laid on 

 the table of the House, which had been prepared for the Honorable th& 

 Commissioner of Crown Lands by G. W. Goyder, Esq., the Surveyor- 

 General. This report made suggestions for the proclamation of certain 

 portions of the country as forest reserves, and dealt exhaustively with 

 recommendations regarding the formation of a Department of Forests. 



In 1875 a BiU was brought in by Mr. Krichauff, and passed, intituled 

 "An Act to make provision for the appointment of a Forest Board, 

 and for other purposes." In this Act certain districts pointed out by 

 Mr. Goyder were defined as for«st reserves. 



During the session of 1876 a short Act was passed to amend certain 

 portions of the Forest Board Act ; and " The Forest Trees Act," under 

 which the present operations of the Forest Board are being carried out, 

 was passed in 1878. The latter Act consolidates and amends all the 

 laws in the colony relating to forest trees, and embraces the different 

 matters provided for in all the three Acts previously quoted. 



Forestry is a branch of rural economy not so easily defined in all its 

 parts as farming is, and this chiefly from its crops requiring a con- 

 siderable number of years to test the results of any experiments that 

 may be made in it. The subject of forest management is a long and 

 broad one, requiring an age of observation and experience in anyone to 

 understand the effects of certain modes of operations. In old and long- 

 established countries, such as those of Europe, where the original forests 

 have for the greater part disappeared many generations ago, and new 

 ones been planted, forestry is taught both theoretically and practically, 

 and is, generally speaking, well understood by aU classes concerned in 

 the rural economy of the respective countries. On the other hand, in 

 these colonies the inhabitants hitherto have been principally engaged in 

 the destruction of their trees in order to make way for the tilling of the 

 land they occupy, and are, as a rule, unacquainted with even the 

 rudiments of forestry, and are quite at a loss how to proceed should 

 they wish to plant a few trees on their holdings. Now that the thinking 

 and prudent portion of the landowners of the country are alive to the 

 important functions which trees play in our midst, and are already 

 showing a strong disposition to form plantations on their estates, but 

 are often deterred from doing so from want of knowledge of the subject, 

 I have thought it incumbent upon myself to come forward with this 

 concise and practical work on forest management generally, with the 

 view of supplying what I feel is a much-felt want in the colony, and 

 thereby enabling the landowners of our community with its use to 

 improve their properties by planting trees on them, both for ornament 



