§ SIR JOHN LUBBOCK (London University)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he proposes to do anything, and, if so, what, to carry out the recommendations of the Select Committee on Forestry?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. CHAPLIN,) Lincolnshire, SleafordThe Select Committee on Forestry made two recommendations: (a) The creation of a Board of Forestry; (b) the establishment of a School of Forestry in more than one centre. But the powers of the Board of Agriculture under the Act which created that Department are strictly limited as follows:—The Board may undertake (1) the preparation of statistics and making of inquiries relating to Forestry. (2) The inspection of schools in which technical instruction is given in connection with Forestry. (3) The aiding of any such school and of any system of lectures or instruction connected with Forestry. The Board has, therefore, no means of giving effect directly to the recommendations. But we are doing what we can within our 424 powers by (1) making farther statistical inquiry than has yet been made into the extent of woods and plantations, distinguishing the younger from the older woods; (2) by inspecting and aiding by a grant the lectures given in the University of Edinburgh under the sanction of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society. We have also undertaken under certain conditions to make grants towards the Chair of Agriculture and Forestry, about to be established in the Durham College of Science; and we are now in correspondence with the Surveyor's Institution, with a view to the official recognition and of the examinations in Forestry conducted by that Institution. I should be very glad to promote the development of education in Forestry as far as possible, and I think that within the powers of the Board of Agriculture we are doing all that can be done in that direction.