A FOREST POLICY FOR AUSTRALIA. 
A Forest Policy for Australia. 
By C. E. LANE-POOLE.* 
() 
Of the many national assets that together we are wont to call our natural 
resources, there are few which hold so important a place in the economy of the 
nation as the forest. It differs from most other resources because, though under 
unsound management it certainly is exhaustible, it is nearly always replenishable, 
while, if it is utilized on sound sylvicultural principles, the forest becomes an 
inexhaustible asset. It is customary to look upon the mineral fields, be they 
gold or base metals or coal, the mother of industries, as the most valuable natural 
resources of the nation. Yet the mineral fields are all exhaustible, and a time will 
come when the last ounce of gold and the last ton of coal will have been won from 
the soil. In this the mineral fields differ essentially from the forest. The actual 
wealth of a mine may be regarded as a finite quantity, while the wealth of a 
forest is infinite. So long as the commercial profits of the undertaking are to a 
large extent utilized within the boundaries of the country, the work of winning 
the mineral from the ground is one which may well be left to the unrestricted 
activities of private enterprise. It is to the advantage of the nation to reap the 
whole golden harvest and utilize the wealth it yields to develop the commerce and 
industries which must follow in the wake of the mining industry. With the 
forest the position is entirely different. It happens all too frequently that 
forests are handed over to a private individual or to a company who treats it 
as one would do a mine, reaps all the crop, and leaves the area devastated and 
useless, Private commercial enterprise knows no other motive than private gain; 
it sees no further than the profits of to-day. If it looks forward at all, it is only 
as far as the time taken to write off its depreciating assets. ‘The forests in such 
hands are naturally doomed; and so it is that no nation that has given the matter 
thought has allowed its forests to fall into the hands of the private individual or 
corporation. 
From the earliest times the forests have been regarded as the property of the 
community in general, the reason being that the forest is an everlasting source of 
wealth, and is not the property of one generation alone, but of the nation for all 
time. The Romans were quick to realize this fundamental principle, and 
Justinian’s Pandects lay down that the cutting of the coppice must be conducted 
by the timbermen as by the father of.a family (sicut pater familias caedebat), and 
‘the large timber trees were to be reserved for the State’s use.+ The community could 
utilize the timber crop, but in such a manner that those who followéd after them 
would find a supply sufficient for their needs also, and they again would leave 
sufficient, and so on down the ages, the forest would continue to yield its unfailing 
crop of timber. The early laws differ only in degree from those that are in force 
in the forests of Europe to-day. The basis of all methods of forest management 
is the same, viz., a restriction of the cutting so as to assure a continuity of 
‘supply. 
In addition to the obvious value of timber, which has been felt from the begin- 
ning of time, the forests were found to have another value, which was almost as’ 
great, and this is their influence on the surrounding conditions of climate, watér, 
and soil. Forests exert a beneficial influence by reducing the extremes of heat and 
cold, they increase the precipitation to a slight extent, while in mountainous 
country they act as great waterestorers, holding up the surplus of water which 
falls from the sky and letting it out slowly in the form of springs, so maintaining 
a contant flow in the rivers of the plains. The devastation wrought in the forests 
of the Alps and Vosges by graziers was followed by such appalling results that 
France learned a lesson never to be forgotten. Erosion of the hill sides, formation 
of torrents, destructive floods wiping out whole farms and villages were some of 
the results. The destruction of the forests of Algiers and certain other parts 
of Africa and Asia has been followed by the invasion of the desert sands, and vast 
areas of agricultural land have been rendered unproductive. Had Justinian’s law 
been followed, and the cutting conducted as though by the father of a family, 
‘then they would only have cut what the forest would have replaced, and none 
* Diplomé de l’Ecole Nationale des 
+ Ulpian VII., ad edict. provinciale. 
Eaux et Foréts, Nancy ; Conservator of Forests, Western Australia. 
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