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The following works were also presented :—
Schlich's Manual of Forestry, Vol. II, presented by Secretary of State
for India.
Catalogues and Reports presented by the Pharmaceutical Society of Great
Britain.
To the donors of such works as have not been separately acknowledged our best thanks are now due.
FORESTRY.
Felling and replanting on the basis of a 25-year rotation were commenced this year.
The question of what is the best rotation for Pinus massoniana in Hong- kong is, however, still open to doubt; experts differ on the point and H. E. the Governor has decided that no more felling shall take place until the results of this year's operations have been calculated and the whole question put before an inde- pendent authority.
The heavy work of replanting was well in hand before the end of this year. A commencement was also made in afforesting the bare sandy hills behind Kowloon with 50,000 pine seedlings. In Appendices B, C and D will be found particulars of the kinds and localities of trees planted, and the positions of trees stolen.
Forestry Licences in the New Territory. When the New Territory was taken over by the British in 1899 there were about as many large pine trees growing in the district as there are small ones now. The Chinese, being afraid that their new masters would confiscate the trees, began to cut them down wholesale. From the accounts which have been collected there must have been something like eight million disposed of in this way, a course which has been ere now, no doubt, bitterly repented; for as a matter of fact the only restriction enforced by the Police was with regard to the cutting down of large wild trees and Fung Shui trees round the villages. The confidence of the tree farmers towards English rule having become gradually re-established and safety from encroachments by neighbouring owners being further secured by the presence of the Police, re-afforestation soon began. The scheme of defining and registering the plantations was therefore received in general with great readiness by the far mers who came forward when called on and paid their licence fees. The scheme was designed to encourage the farmers to re-afforest by giving them secure tenure of the trees, to secure re-sowing of felled areas and to provide a proper demarcation of the ground in case of disputes. The Superintendent, accompanied by the newly appointed Licensing Clerk, visited about 80% of the plantations between August and December, issuing about 300 licences and collecting $5,700.00 in licence fees. The fees were at the rate of 10 cents per acre so that the total acreage licensed is about 57,000 acres. In several cases disputes arose in consequence of the wrong persons having come forward and secured licences for plantations to which they had no right; the proper owners in spite of repeated notices and warnings failing to present themselves until they found the licensee cutting down their trees. The rules published in the Government Gazette (24th February), by which the assistance of the Land Court is provided, will, it is hoped,. obviate many of these difficulties in future. The rules have been framed with great care and apparently provide for all contingencies, but time alone can show how far the objects aimed at will be realized.
China New Year Shrub. (Enkianthus quinqueflorus.)-This shrub, which is one of the most beautiful of all our rich shrub-flora has yearly been becoming more and more scarce on the hills in consequence of the amount that has been cut by the Chinese at each New Year to sell for decorations. If the cutting had been judicious little harm would have been done, but in consequence of the ruthless destruction of whole shrubs the species was, at any rate in this Island, on its way to extinction, an eventuality which would suit the Chinese as little as the other nature-loving residents. An effort was therefore made at the proper time to protect our hills and, although there appears to have been a plentiful supply of the shrub in the market, the greater part of it must have come from Canton for very little cutting took place in Hong- kong and the New Territory.