1885.] WOOD FOR WARSHIPS. 407 



made on their area during the last decade, be it remembered that 

 the high teak forest tree, the only one worth noting in this discus- 

 sion, takes 80 or 120 years to grow — what then of supplies in the 

 interval ? The Forest Service of India is here recognised as more 

 than a necessity for its great country alone. It must solve this 

 imperial question. For no extension of transport facilities from 

 neighbouring countries can displace an Indian supply. 



Mr. Simmonds' essay on this subject, given in the Journal of the 

 Society of Arts, February 2 7, may be consulted by those wishing 

 the statistics of the question. The following quotation must 

 sufiBce : — 



" Out of the total exported from India in 1883, 55, .519 tons were 

 shipped from ports to British Burmah, principally Moulmein, the 

 rise in price from £7, 6s. to £8, 9s. per ton was said to be due to 

 the falling off in the supplies of first-class timber, and to the great 

 difficulty wliich exists in getting the logs to market. The total 

 output of teak in the year, as .shown by the coasting trade exports, 

 was 113,391 cubic tons. Bengal and Bombay receiving the bulk, 

 Madras and Sindh taking only 15,000 tons, Great Britain took 

 about 49,000 tons, and small shipments were made to Gibraltar 

 (probably for orders), Ceylon, Sumatra, the Straits Settlements, and 

 the Cape Colony. In 1884, 122,861 cubic tons of teak were 

 brought coastwise into India. This is all sent from Burmah to 

 Bengal, Bombay, Madras, and Sindh, and the quantity thus con- 

 sumed in the country is far larger than that exported to foreign 

 countries. 



" The rise of prices and decrease in the quantity shipped abroad 

 are an indication both of the increasing scarcity of this timber, and 

 of the larger demand for it which has been created in India by the 

 progress of construction. The scarcity, it must be said, is as yet 

 manifested only so far as regards large logs ; inferior and small logs 

 are abundant enough still. Moulmein has already been deprived 

 by Bangkok of this trade which it possessed until recently. The 

 value has more than doubled in the last five years, owing to the 

 large timber, convenient to the rivers, having now disappeared. 



" The quantity of teak imported, by land, into India was, in 

 1880-81, 116,737 tons; in 1881-82, 107,433 tons; in 1882-83, 

 131,714 tons ; and in 1883-84, 180,205 tons ; valued at 

 £1,035,340." 



