1885.] AUSTRALIAN TIMBER SUPPLIES. 285 



AUSTRALIAN TIMBEB. SUPPLIES. 



VICTOEIA, Mr. Simmonds states, imports much more timber 

 than she exports. Soft woods imported in 1883 were 

 valued at £706,424, but her timber exports were estimated at 

 £43,127. She has still forest reserves of indigenous eucalypts 

 amounting to nearly 40,000 square miles, in which the stringy 

 bark {E. ohliqua) covers 25,000 square miles, while there are 8000 

 square miles of the large white and red gums {E. amygclalina and 

 E. nostrata). 



New South Wales, as is well known, abounds in valuable hard- 

 woods. The banks of the coast rivers are supplied with a luxuriant 

 growth of timber. There are twenty-seven species of eucalypts 

 alone. The durability of the New South Wales timbers is proved 

 by the fact that the vessels built in the colony never seem to grow 

 old. Some descriptions of wood placed in wells and buried in the 

 ground have been taken up after the lapse of fifty years and 

 upwards, and found to be as sound as on the day they were 

 immured or immersed. The best timbers are found near water 

 carriage, and the rivers along the coast all offer superior facilities 

 for shipbuilding, timber as sound and durable as any yet known 

 being there ready to hand. 



Of the ten thousand forest trees which probably represent the 

 timber-producing capabilities of the globe, seven or eight thousand 

 would flourish in New South Wales. Already there is an export 

 trade in cut and sawn timber of considerable value. The export in 

 1881 was valued at £23,816, in 1882 at £42,040, and in 1883 

 at £67,150. It was well observed by the jurors on wood at the 

 Victoria Exliibition of 1872, that the disfavour which attaches to 

 Australian timber is in a large measure owiu" to the fact that the 

 timber is so frequently felled at improper seasons, whilst the sap 

 ■ vessels are full ; and it is a matter for regret that this is never 

 considered by the Government in calUng for tenders ; the comple- 

 tion of the work being often stipulated for at a time which leaves 

 the contractor no alternative but to fell his timber after the sap has 

 risen. Another cause of the disfavour is owing to the fact that due 

 care is not exercised in sending the best sorts, besides which there 

 is a general want of care in witlidrawing faulty pieces from 

 shipment. 



In 1883, upwards of 8,829,754 superficial feet of timber were 

 exported from tins colony, which in the same year imported 

 47,565,000 superficial feet, and with other wood valued at 

 £403,547. 



