MR. JESSE COLLLNGS (Birmingham, Bordesley)In the absence of the right hon. Baronet the Member for the University of London, I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he proposes to take any, and, if so, what steps to carry out the recommendations of the Select Committee on Forestry.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. H. GARDNER,) Essex, Saffron WaldenAs was stated by my predecessor, in reply to the similar question put by the right hon. Baronet on the 6th March, 1891, the statutory powers of the Board of Agriculture are strictly limited, and we have no means and no power of giving effect directly to the recommendations of the Select Committee, either as regards the establishment of a School or Schools of Forestry, or the creation of a Board of Forestry. I am, however, in full sympathy with the desire to promote the development of education in Forestry, and we are, I think, doing all that we can in that direction. We have continued to make a substantial grant towards the cost of lectures in the University of Edinburgh under the auspices of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, and towards the cost of the chair which has been established in the Durham College of Science, to include the teaching of Forestry. A course of free instruction to practical foresters and gardeners in connection with the Royal Botanic Gardens at 859 Edinburgh, to which we have devoted the sum of £150, is now in progress; and in view of the fact that a course of lectures in Forestry has been started in connection with the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College we have increased our grant to that Institution. We also propose to continue to give the statistical information as to woods and plantations which was supplied for the first time in 1891. I shall always be glad to receive and to consider any suggestions for the increase of sound technical knowledge on this subject.