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Total Forest Area. The total area of forest now owned by the State is about 10,478,247 acres, but of this area the total area of forest at present of milling value is approximately only 1,371,000 acres, and a portion of this is already subject to milling licenses. As the area of the whole Dominion is 65,864,550 acres, it will be seen that the total area of forest owned by the State is only 15-9 per cent, on the total, whilst the area of milling-forest owned by the State is only 2-08 per cent. It may be concluded that most of the forest on private and Native lands (of which there is no information as regards the forest area) will be cut down in a few years' time. When, therefore, it is borne in mind that such highly developed countries as France and Germany (and even these countries import together about 30 por cent, of their total consumption of timber) have respectively 17 per cont. and 26 per cent, of their total area under commercial forests, it will be seen how necessary it is that our remaining forests should be subjected to such management as will prevent their wasteful use and the exhaustion of our timber-supplies. New Areas proclaimed State Forests and Areas from which the Reservation was withdrawn. During the year a total area of 630 acres was proclaimed State forest, whilst an area of 663 acres was withdrawn from reservation for the purposes of settlement. Forest Fires. During the year little damage was caused by fires in State forests. Two hundred acres were burned in Canterbury, but this forest contained no timber of milling value. On Crown land adjoining the Waipoua State Forest 200,000 ft. of kauri was destroyed by fire, but the fire was put out before it reached the reserve. In common with most young countries, New Zealand has lost through the ravages of fire large areas of forest the value of which, if now existing, would amount to many hundreds of thousands of pounds. Persons are often heard to assert that New Zealand forests cannot be protected from fire, but such assertions are unreasonable when it is remembered that effective fire-protection is practised in Sweden, Norway, Germany, France, Austria, India, Japan, and South Africa, where the summers are on the whole hotter and drier than they are in New Zealand. Fire-protection is simply a matter of staff and the adoption of correct methods. Even in forests where fire-protection is practised, fires of course occasionally occur, as they do in cities where fire brigades are kept, but in the former case there is no more reason for accepting fires as unavoidable than there is in the latter case. In the United States and Canada the protection of forests from fire is one of the chief functions of the Forest services. Fire wardens can arrest without a warrant any one detected in lighting a fire in a State forest; they are authorized to call upon settlers and others to help extinguish fires, and they are equipped with fire-fighting appliances and field telephones ; settlers have to obtain permits from fire wardens to burn off their clearings, and are allowed to burn only during certain months of the year ; engines on railway-lines (they are private lines, be it noted) and those used in loggingoperations must use approved spark-arresters in the summer months ; and notices warning persons against destroying their own valuable property--the forests —are put up in all railway-stations and other suitable places. The Canadian Forest Association, which has official recognition and support, annually spends a large amount of money by advertising, lectures, and other means in informing the public of the immense value of the forests and the necessity, from considerations of timber-supply, water-conservation, climate, &c, for preventing their destruction. At some of our most important kauri forests we already have caretakers, but more rangers are required ; and it is desirable to have new legislation to control burning by settlers, to extend the powers of forest officers, and to make obligatory the use of spark-arresters during the summer months. Serious fires have, indeed, even in recent years, occurred in American and Canadian forests, but their frequency has been very much reduced. In European forests protection is so efficient that fires are a rarity, and when they occur they are extinguished before any considerable damage is done. Experiments in Indigenous Forests. There is a large area of forest in Now Zealand which is at present of little or no value for milling, but which on acoount of its growing on poor hilly country it is desirable to retain under forest. The forests on these lands, however, can be made directly valuable ; they already provide the shelter and the kind of soil young trees require, and all that has at present to be done is to find by proper experiment the most suitable trees to grow in them. Having ascertained this, certain areas will be taken in hand, properly protected, and suitable timber-trees planted in the forest on them. With this method of afforestation only about 200 trees are planted to the acre, as against 2,700 in plantations in open country. In the former case a certain amount of shrub-cutting and ring-barking of overhanging trees will have to be done, and the young trees will require looking after for some years. Already plots have been selected in a milled forest in the Rotorua district, and during the coming planting season these will be planted with exotics. Mr. Goudie, Superintendent for the North Island, last winter planted some Monterey cypress in a small indigenous forest near Tikitapu Lake, and the result is so far most encouraging. In the South Island indigenous forests similar experiments will