larger view regarding trees and their uses which has not yet appealed to many Australian farmers. To be exact, it has appealed, so far, to remarkably few. To how many farmers in Western Australia has it occurred that timber might be grown as a crop, just as wheat and potatoes, and so on, are grown? Under the Southern Cross the aim of most men on the land is to cut down, ringbark, or otherwise destroy the timber on his holding. Few farms in this State are all good agricultural land; in most there is a part, and often a large part, which it is quite impossible to turn to good farming use. There can be no objection to the clearing of all the good land, but to destroy the timber on the poor part of the farm is really wasting what may, with a very little attention, become in the course of years a source of regular profit. Unless for pressing farm purposes, no timber should be cut on that portion of the farm except what is fully mature or defective from some reason or other to an extent which renders it of little value. No young timber, especially, should be carelessly sacrificed and all seedlings and saplings should be cared for. The time will come when the timber patch will provide an annual income. Ancient and mediæval history has many instances of the disasters which inevitably follow the indiscriminate destruction of forests. Mesopotamia, once praised as the paradise of fertility, where according to Herodotus, the cultivation of the grape could not succeed on account of its moisture, has become, to a very considerable extent, a sand waste. Most of the springs and brooks of Palestine, and with them the fertility, still celebrated in the early middle ages have gone. Greece shows the progress of a similar decadence. Sicily, once the never-failing granary of the Roman Empire, once well-wooded, now entirely deforested, suffers from repeated failures of crops. The whole evidence points to the interdependence of the farmer and the forester. Each has his part to play in the national economy. And it is the duty of those in authority to see that each is allowed to play his part in the way that is best for the general good.

12133b. Is there a probability under a policy of conservative lumbering, of the employment of less labour?—There are two difficult and perplexing problems with which almost every Government is called upon to deal. One is rural depopulation, the other unemployment. In Australia, the abnormal ratio of the population gathered within the various metropolitan areas to the whole population of the respective States has elicited grave misgivings. There are many rural districts in the Australian States where the population is decreasing or remaining stationary. According to statistics published in the Commonwealth Year Book for 1914, the proportion of the population in the capital cities of the State is:—Victoria 47.11 per cent., South Australia 46.10 per cent., New South Wales 46.38 per cent., Queensland 22.76 per cent., Western Australia 37.89 per cent., Tasmania 19.85 per cent. "That this concentration is phenomenal," says the Commonwealth Statistician, "may be readily seen by comparing the percentage on the total population with similar figures from other countries." New Zealand's percentage is only 6.45, while in European countries the highest is Denmark with 20.29 per cent. of its people in Copenhagen. England follows with 12.54 per cent. in London, and no other European country is so high as 12 per cent., the average for the others being about 7 per cent. The concentration problem in Australia, therefore, presents an aspect of some gravity. Australia, also, like other countries has its unemployed. The problem of finding suitable employment for unskilled labour has always presented many difficulties. State forestry offers the immense advantages of a great store of elastic Government work for the unemployed in the same way as it offers a store of elastic second-class grazing for the farmers in times of drought. In one important respect, too, forest work differs from most Government employment. The latter must be done when it is wanted, but there is always some forest work that can be hastened or retarded, to cope with an emergency, with little inconvenience. Thinning, planting, and cutting can be hastened or postponed a while according to the exigencies of the State. The forests must be controlled under sufficient legislative authority to permit of a continuous policy of work directed to a definite end—that end being the perpetuation of the forests so that they may be permanent sources of wealth and the assured foundation of a multitude of dependent industries. In the cut-out areas of forest in Western Australia there is a wide field for the employment of labour, and this should not be lost sight of when the question of finding employment for returned soldiers is under discussion. What has been said has reference to State forests. But outside of those areas there are avenues for the employment of labour in forestry. In this State there are a large number of trees, mostly of the smaller variety, of little use for great structural purposes. But owing to their beauty of colouring and grain and for other reasons they are of importance in furniture making and decoration and many useful arts. The demand at present is small, partly because so few West Australians are aware of the true value of many of the native woods, and partly because those manufacturers and craftsmen who use them find a difficulty in procuring regular and suitable supplies. The Government could assist here by granting facilities to private individuals for the utilisation of these timbers. When their beauty and intrinsic worth become better known there is certain to be an active demand by lovers of the artistic and beautiful for articles made from these woods.

LESLIE JOHN NEWMAN, Assistant, Entomological Laboratory, Department of Agriculture, sworn and examined:

12134. By the CHAIRMAN: We would like you to explain to us the functions of your office and the policy you are working under, and what you have been able to accomplish in the direction of assisting the fruit growers of the State to free themselves from insects or other pests and bring their crops to fruition?—The work of the office is confined to insect life, and it has nothing whatever to do with botany or plant pathology. In the strict sense of the word, entomology treats with all insects that have six legs, but in a broader sense, from an agricultural point of view, we have to embrace all the animal parasites which infect plants and animals. The scope of the work of the office is purely economic, that is, it deals with those insect pests which affect the produce of horticulturists, agriculturists, and stock men. It is