When we consider that the total area of woodlands in this country is only a little in excess of 3,071,000 acres, that fully 17,000,000 acres of waste lands exist, and that we annually import over 10,000,000 tons of timber at a cost of about £25,000,000, the necessity for an increased area of woodlands, so that a portion at least of this vast sum may be kept at home, will be apparent to all, the more so as a dearth of timber is imminent and outside supplies are being rigidly conserved, while our home demands are ever on the increase. In order to carry out my proposed scheme of planting a million acres during the next five years, at the rate of 200,000 acres annually, profitable and healthy employment would at once be found for several thousand workmen. The question of transporting, housing and otherwise dealing with these workmen has been brought forward as the most serious drawback to the scheme, but, personally, having had to deal with such cases I can see no insuperable difficulty in the undertaking. Surely, if our railway and water companies, as also private landowners, can deal with hundreds of men in remote mountain districts that are far removed from road and rail, the Government could make the necessary arrangements for the various bodies of workmen that would be employed for afforesting purposes. Nor must tree planting be considered as a new departure for unemployed labour, as in the formation of a large plantation on a dreary exposed hillside in Wales, the whole of the work, including clearing the ground of rough surface growth, draining, pitting and planting, was most successfully carried out by detachments of the unemployed. The general physique of Army and Navy men and the discipline and hard work to which they have been subjected during the war will render them peculiarly suitable for carrying out the various operations connected with the formation of plantations. Convalescent soldiers and sailors could also find healthy employment in the various lighter tasks which go hand in hand with afforestation, such as clearing the ground of rough growing vegetation and lifting and distributing the young trees. Several suggestions have been made for providing employment for our returned soldiers and sailors, but much of this proposed work is, so to speak, invented for the purpose, and would probably never be seriously considered except for the exigencies of the case. Now I am quite of opinion that afforesting waste lands offers a sensible system of employment, for it is now generally admitted that a largely increased area of our woodlands is an imperative and pressing necessity, and what is of equal importance, the undertaking, if wisely entered upon, would not only increase the value of such lands fourfold but form the nucleus of an ever-increasing revenue of the State.