856 



Report on Afforestation. 



[FEB., 



Commission. — The value of land falling within the definition of 

 " suitability " may be taken, except in rare instances, to lie between 

 £2 and ;£io freehold value; but the average value of suitable lands, 

 including the necessary buildings and other preliminary equipment, may 

 be taken at £6 10s. per acre, and the average cost of afforestation 

 also at jQ6 10s. per acre. If 150,000 acres be annually taken in hand, 

 a sum of about ^2,000,000 would be needed annually to finance the 

 undertaking. 



Money expended in afforestation differs in kind from other calls 

 on the national purse. It is a productive investment of capital. To 

 provide this capital sum out of taxes would be an act of unprecedented 

 generosity on the part of the present generation of taxpayers in favour 

 of their posterity. No stronger justification for proceeding by loan than 

 a reproductive outlay exists. The loan should be based on actuarial 

 calculation showing initial cost, expenses of upkeep and management 

 calculated at compound interest over the whole period, and the value 

 of the property when fully matured. Such actuarial statements are 

 given in the Report, and show, for the full scheme, that, after 

 allowing 3 per cent, compound interest on all the capital invested, 

 the approximate equalised revenue would at the end of eighty years 

 amount to ^"17,411,000 per annum, while the value of the property 

 might be expected to be ^562,075,000, or ^106,993,000 in excess of 

 the sum involved in its creation. A smaller scheme involving the 

 afforestation of 6,000,000 acres (75,000 acres annually for eighty years) 

 would show a profit of about 10,000,00 annually, or a capital value 

 of ^320,000,000, being ^60,944,000 in excess of the cost of production. 



Coming to ways and means by which a loan of this character may 

 best be provided, a point of great importance to be borne in mind is 

 that, although the period of rotation of a timber crop may be taken 

 as eighty years, yet, after forty years, owing to the value of thinnings, 

 and the receipts of some short-period crops, the forest becomes 

 practically self-supporting. Between the fortieth and eightieth years 

 the sales of timber will be sufficient to meet the annual charges, 

 including the upkeep and the extension of the forest. After the eightieth 

 year a large annual revenue will be derived. These considerations 

 point to a free loan from the Treasury to the Forest Commissioners; 

 the net deficit to be met would in the first year be ^90,000 or ^45,000, 

 according to the extent of the operation, and would reach its maximum 

 in the fortieth year, amounting in that year to ^3,131,250 or 

 ^1,565,625. After this period the deficit would be insignificant, while 

 in the eighty-first year the revenue derived would be ^17,411,000 or 

 ^10,000,000 respectively, representing about 3! per cent, on the total 

 accumulated costs of the undertaking. 



Unemployed Labour in Relation to Afforestation. — On the question 

 of labour and its relations to forestry, the evidence shows that the 

 operations involved in afforestation vary in the degree of requisite skill 

 from little or none in rough road-making and surface draining to a 

 considerable amount in the planting. The Commissioners wish to 

 make it clear that they have in contemplation a scheme of national 

 afforestation on economic lines. They have no hesitation in asserting 

 that there are in the United Kingdom at any time, and especially in 

 winter, thousands of men out of work for longer or shorter periods, 

 who are quite ready and able to perform the less skilled work without 

 previous training, and with satisfactory results. There is a still larger 



