29

C.-3a

The expenditure of certain sums during this formative period will result in immediate increased revenue, for by it the Foresf Service could bring into play proper field supervision of cutting, as well as an ordered system of selling Crown timber, &o. Results of the Forest Service in New Brunswick, Canada. It has been definitely learned in British Columbia and New Brunswick, for instance, thai increased supervision is the most remunerative form of investment, and each considered increase has been found to yield very definite monetary returns. In the annual report, 1919, of the Minister in Charge of the Forest Service, New Brunswick, Canada, it states, " The Province is indeed to be congratulated on receiving the largest revenue in the history of the Department, it being upwards of 67,000 dollars in excess of the previous year, or a gain of B's per cent., and 58 per cent, over the amount received in 1917 . . . the improved methods employed in conformity with the Forest Act have to a large extent contributed to this increased revenue. The year just (dosed has given us the first full year to observe the results that have been obtained under the present Forest Service, and 1 am glad to report the new conditions are not only eminently satisfactory but. have met our best expectal ions, and the Province is receiving at last a full and honest return of the lumber out upon its Crown lands. All old methods have been discarded, and a complete reformation made to ensure for the people of the Province a fair and equitable return of the income arising from a territorial revenue." The Commission of Conservation of Canada recently said, "The New Brunswick Government is to be congratulated upon its progressive and far-sighted forest legislation, and upon the later developments in organization, timber-sales policy, forest survey, land-classification, and forest research. No province of Canada has a more progressive forest policy than New Brunswick." This Government owns over 7,000,000 acres of land, or about one-fourth of the area of the Province. The cut of last season was about 350,000,000 ft., and the expected revenue is over .£,100,000. This revenue is equivalent to about 20d. per 100 ft. In New 'Zealand the average net revenue to the State hits been about BJd. per 100 ft. Results of the Forest Service in British Columbia, Canada. An inspection of the revenue returns of the Province of British Columbia shows a net increase after the formation of the Forest Service manned by trained men. Herewith is appended a graphical statement of the forest revenue of this province: it is self-explanatory.

Forest Revenues of British Columbia.

Future Timber-supply. There are three courses open for securing a permanent timber-supply for the future : — (1.) By State man-made plantations. Under this procedure the present generation " pays the piper " directly or through taxation : (2.) By the " laissez-faire " or " leave things as they are " policy, in the hope that timbersupplies will be available from Russia, Siberia, or somewhere else, or that the country go without wood : (3.) By a well-ordered policy of reasoned forest management in which the indigenous forests are administered on a "sustained-yield basis" in perpetuity, and a measure of State and private forest-extension is carried on.