276 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ocr., 1902. 
land should voluntarily be relinquished without hesitation; and if this principle 
applies to the valuable class of forests under consideration, it applies a fortiori to the 
less valuable classes which are presently to be discussed. When cultivation has been 
established it will generally be advisable to disforest the newly-settled area. But it 
should be distinctly understood that there is nothing in the Forest Act, or in any 
rules or orders now in force, which limits the discretion of local governments without 
previous reference to the Government of India (though, of course, always subject to 
the control of that Government) in diverting forest land to agricultural purposes, even 
though that land may have been declared Reserved Forest under the Act.” 
Place this solemn declaration of policy side by side with the facts that British 
India has only 950,000 square miles of territory for 231,000,000 people, and that the 
Australian Commonwealth has 3,000,000 square miles for 4,500,000 people, and the 
na poe difficulties of forest conservancy in Australia will appear in a very ludicrous 
ght. 
No Australian statesman can have any greater desire for the extension of land 
settlement than is here declared to be the settled policy of the country which has 
reduced the exact type of forest conservancy, whichis adaptable to this continent, to a 
science. 
‘The conditions which govern the business of forestry in India and in Australia 
are identical in most essential points. 
When some years ago I resided in India, and was engaged in collecting informa- 
tion on forestry matters, and investigating the operations of working plans framed 
under the Burmah Forest Act of 1881, I had ample opportunities of investigating the 
forest condition of an immense territory. I did so with the advantage of an 
experience of European forestry from my childhood, supplemented by a training at 
the Royal Gardens, Kew. During a fourteen years’ residence in Australia, during 
which time I have paid unremitting attention to forestry problems, my opinion that 
the Indian system is the one suited to Australian conditions has become strengthened 
every day. 
During a visit which Mr. Bibbentrop, the Inspector-General of Forests in India, 
aid to Australia seven years ago, he suggested the regulations and working plans 
ramed urder the Burmah Forest Act as those most suited for Victoria, and this 
applies with greater force to New South Wales and Queensland. Recently in 
Victoria a prominent statesman is reported to have declared that a person who has 
been accustomed to Indian forestry would be of no service in Victoria. Mr. Bibben- 
trop regarded it as highly important that an officer from Victoria should be deputed 
to study for a year or two in India the forests and forest methods of that country. 
Those acquainted with Mr. Bibbentrop’s work, “ Forestry in British India,” will find 
much interest in comparing it with portions of the fourteenth report of the Royal 
Commission on State Forests, Melbourne, 1901. 
It would probably surprise the objector to Indian methods to learn that the most 
nearly perfect or normal forests in the world are of eucalyptus, and that they are not 
in Australia but in India, and that if the Australian forester wishes to see perfectly 
managed plantations of Australian gums he must go to the Nilgiris. 
One feature which the forests of Australia possess in a remarkable degree, much 
more than in India, is the property of natural reproduction within certain limits. The 
great groundwork of Indian forest methods is the taking advantage of and encourag- 
ing the natural regenerating tendency of the forests. Of £734,992 expended on forest 
work in India in 1899-1900, only £8,355 was expended on regular plantations and 
’ artificial reafforesting, and £2,333 on cultural operations. 
But a knowledge of cultural conditions is regarded as essential to successful 
forestry in all ccuntries where it is expected that forestry shall be understood to mean 
the management of growing timber crops in such a way as to secure their perpetuity 
while obtaining the maximum possible annual output of mature and marketable 
timber. Itis for this reason that students entering Cooper’s Hill College for the 
Indian forest service are required to study botany, physics, and forest evgineering, 
and to make full use of the botanical laboratory, forestry museum, and forest nursery 
attached to that institution. 
Referring to this point, the Royal Commission on State Forests in Victoria (1901) 
in their report say :—‘* The Conservator should be responsible for the management 
and working of the reserves, and for the efficiency and proper performance of duty of 
the forests staff His duties should embrace those of a general inspector, and on all 
technical questions of management and working practice he should have full control. 
ee 
