I move:—
"That a sum, not exceeding £15,223, be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1925, in respect of a grant in aid of the Forestry Fund (9 and 10 Geo. 5, c. 58)."
Deputies will note that certain items in this Vote are reduced, and they will note that the item "Forestry Operations," £21,400, remains the same. Advances for afforestation purposes are £500; last year the amount was £1,000. This system of giving small loans for forestry purposes to people who apply in a casual way is not sound. You get very little work done, and you do not get it done according to plan. We are endeavouring to substitute a different system. We are asking the County Committees of Agriculture, and we have got some of them to agree, to set aside a certain sum for forestry. We are asking them to set up nurseries, to acquire land and to turn that land into a nursery, and we offer them a bonus of £20 for every acre of land planted in that way. We are hoping that they will sell the young trees at cost price to farmers in the neighbourhood who require them for shelter belts. We think that it is much more likely that we will get results if the County Committees of Agriculture take up this, if they spend a little money, the 2d. rate themselves, and if we give them the bonus of £20 an acre together with the services of a forester to look after their nurseries. That is the reason why that item is reduced.
With regard to forestry education, we had only one forestry school, that at Avondale, and it was essential that it should be taken over by the Ministry of Defence for military reasons. We have had to adopt a different system with our apprentices. They are sent out on forestry work, and we cannot take them back to the school until we are in a position to reopen the school and get it going. In the meantime the apprentices are just as many, and they are doing actual forestry work throughout the country. With regard to that item of £21,400 for forestry operations it is the same as last year. Our position as regards that is quite simple. Forestry development is essential in this country, for probably it is the worst wooded country in the world.
Forestry development costs a considerable amount of money, and for the amount of money that is spent on it, it gives very little employment, so that as a method for relieving unemployment, forestry is not quite an ideal system. Further, it takes about 30 years before there is any return. Deputies may say that that is all the more reason why we should begin immediately. But our position is this, that in those few years, 1922, 1923, and 1924, we have had to make the most drastic economies in order to balance our budget and to get on a sound financial basis; and these are not exactly the years to undertake expenditure on a large scale which will fructify only after a very long period of years. And I say that, while fully admitting that as soon as possible money should be spent, and spent liberally as soon as we can afford it, in making a commencement in this service. Our way of making a commencement is to acquire all the land that we can get. Fortunately we have on hands, I think, about 20,000 acres of land for forestry purposes. I will give you the exact figures later on. And we have acquired over 6,000 acres of that from the Ministry of Defence. Of course, if we put the price of these 6,000 acres of land on this Estimate, it would make it quite respectable looking. I merely mention that point in order that Deputies might realise that the Forestry Estimate is what it appears there and, added to that, what would be the fair value of 6,000 acres of land, the forestry rights over which we have acquired from the Ministry of Defence.