30 president's address. 



-down, and the springs, the children of the forest, dried up. 

 Instead of a slow-running brook digging out holes here and 

 there clear as crystal, we have simply a torrent carrying the 

 pebbles and sand from the hills, and then a desert." 



The Ambassador of France to the United States stated that 

 " in France our forests, like all the other inhabitants of the land, 

 have their own code of laws. One of them is the law of 1860, which 

 provides that every landowner who possesses mountain slopes is 

 obliged, whether he wills or not, to re-forest them if denuded. 

 In 1882 a new law, perhaps a little less stringent, but more 

 practical, was enacted. According to this law, which is still in 

 force, the Government has the right to serve an injunction on 

 a,ny owner of mountains who has not re-forested them. The 

 owner has a right to refuse, and in that case the Government 

 -expends a fair sum of money and plants the trees for the good of 

 the community. The results have been very happy. In every 

 part where these rules have been applied it is noted that the 

 temperature is more equal, that the water supplies from springs 

 have been more regular, and the torrents less destructive." If 

 in France, where the climate is temperate, where the lower 

 vegetation is more continuous, and the ground is not baked brick 

 hard by a fierce sun, it is considered of national importance to 

 preserve the forests of the highlands by such stringent laws, it 

 is surely a lesson to us with our generally more arid conditions, 

 our bright sunshine and our exceptional monsoonal rains. 



The importance of forests in the upper reaches in preventing 

 disastrous floods in the lower reaches of the rivers has been 

 demonstrated abundantly in the States. Mr. Wilson says ; 

 <l We have to tell the people of the lower Mississippi every few 

 years to raise their levees to hold the floods that exceed them- 

 selves, as the forest ceases to hold waters that in previous years 

 were directed into the hills and held back." Sydney, of course, 

 is in no danger of serious floods, but Newcastle, Maitland, 

 Orafton and the other towns similarly situated are strongly 

 interested in the preservation of the forests in the catchment 

 areas of these rivers. 



