1 Juxx, 1900.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 511. | 
_ penny. The Crown forests cannot be enlarged—though there is room for much 
_ planting within their boundaries—but the undemarcated bushes can be reserved 
| upona more liberal scale as to the surrounding lands—which are suitable only 
_ for summer grazing, and might be leased as pasturage for the benefit of the 
| forests, until they can be planted. Crown forests, however, only concern us in’ 
so far as the cost of their conservation increases the general cost of any scheme. 
for the afforestation of the colony. ‘This cost will have to be borne by the 
owners of the land benefited, and as the State owns but a small portion of the 
land itcan only be burdened witha proportionate share of the expense. The land- 
owner in a settled district could do a great deal of afforestation on his estate, at 
a very low cost, with the surplus labour and appliances, perforce allowed as a 
margin to the resources available for his regular work. As the land to be 
wooded is land that can be made productive in no other way, it is rather 
surprising that the owner does not cover it with trees; but he knows well 
enough that a patch of trees is neither “here nor there,’ and that appear- 
ances are more cheaply obtained by clumps, screens, and hollow belts of 
foliage. It is hardly worth while planting areas of solid woodlands that are too 
small to sensibly affect an estate climatically, even if they are allowed to reach 
the age at which their consumption of water is balanced by their conservation 
of it Some guarantee that the afforestation of the otherwise useless portion 
of an estate shall be both a permanent and an effective improvement is required ; 
and to be climatically effective it is necessary that the other estates in the 
neighbourhood should be similarly afforested, so as to present such an area of . 
solid woodland as will ameliorate the droughts, seasonable and unseasonable, to 
which every part of Natal is liable. This guarantee is therefore the crux of the 
whole problem; and if it can be given, the landowners of the colony, knowing: 
that their work will be good for all time, may be left to turn their barren hill- 
sides into forest, profitable directly to themselves, and indirectly to the country . 
at large. Such a guarantee can be given by a forest law, locally optional, but, 
which, when once applied to a district, cannot be removed without special legis- 
lation, difficult to obtain, and practically impossible, except in the case of land 
required for a public purpose. ‘This is a point vital to the success of such a 
scheme; but it will be of course understood that the owner only relinquishes 
his right to disforest in order to increase the value of his estate, and that he 
retains full rights of sale and disposal as before. Crown forests would be 
under the law from the first, and local option might perhaps be also refused in 
the case of important areas of indigenous bush (subject to compensation of | 
~ some kind) now in private hands. 
As a suggestion, the law might work as follows: A certain minimum acre- 
age of land lies along a ridge of hills through several adjoining properties, 
which is suitable only for afforestation. The owners consent to place this area 
under the forest law, and it becomes a forest district within the meaning of 
the Act, while the owners themselves (or a committee elected by them) form a 
local conservancy board for its administration, empowered to fix the area to 
be planted annually, and the contributory work or subscription of each share- 
holder. The Government appoints an officer to be in independent control of both 
the planting and felling, who shall select the actual site of the former and mark the 
stems for the latter purpose —it being obvious that each landholder will prefer that 
his own property has prior attention, though the forest should be considered as a, 
whole, and that the authority selecting the trees to be felled should have no interest 
in the resulting timber. The conservators should, however, appoint and control the le 
forest guards, and be responsible for the observance of the regulations under the 
law; the Crown forest officer only visiting the forest to inspect or mark cuttings. 
The Government would, therefore, be free from the expense of special super- 
vision; but it would be necessary to provide against the danger that slackness of 
local interest might afterwards compromise the success of local effort. Some 
clause in the law might empower the Government to take over the full control 
of a district forest at any time, and to deduct the cost of management from the 
revenue before paying over the latter to the shareholders. Given a regular 
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