64 JOURNAL OF THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM [vol. iv 



little economic value will ultimately be planted with Pines and other 

 exotic conifers. 



Tasmania will have to follow on the same lines though once this little 

 state was well off in both hard and softwoods. Her Eucalyptus though 

 few in species yield timber of excellent quality and the Huon (Dacrydium 

 Franklinii Hook, f .), King William and Red Pines (Athrotaxis cupressoides 

 D. Don, A. selaginoidesjy. Don and A. laxifolia Hook, f.) furnish most 

 excellent softwoods but commercially speaking these softwoods have nearly 

 vanished and since the trees regenerate badly and grow very slowly their 

 is little hope that they can ever again become important as a source 

 of timber. This exotic conifers must supply. The Eucalpytus are still 

 plentiful and Blackwood {Acacia melanoxylon R. Br.) is not particularly 

 scarce, though wasteful methods of lumbering have played sad havoc 

 with both. A few years ago Tasmania supplied the Admiralty Dock at 

 Dover, England, with a number of piles each 100 feet long and squared 20 

 inches by 20 inches at each end. This is a record to be proud of and if 

 only the people of Tasmania could be brought to a realization of the full 

 value of their Eucalyptus this little island might again supply similar 

 requirements. Fire protection is an urgent necessity wherever forests 

 exist and especially is this true of the whole of Australia. Fire protection, 

 the planting of suitable exotic conifers, and the conversion of sand-dunes, 

 the Button-grass plains and other waste lands into productive areas by 

 tree planting are the problems confronting the Forestry Service of Tas- 

 mania. 



New Zealand, the last of the regions under review, is again different. 



The forests are rain-forests, the trees evergreen and Conifers and Taxads 

 are the dominant elements. Before the country was settled by white 

 men these forests clothed the greater part of New Zealand but forest 

 destruction has been very great and some species of trees like the wonderful 

 Kauri Pine (Agathis australis Steud.) are commercially speaking gone as a 

 source of timber. No species of Eucalyptus is indigenous in New Zealand 

 and her native hardwood trees in general are unimportant as a source of 

 timber. The softwoods are not excelled by those of any other land but the 

 supply is rapidly diminishing. The trees regenerate indifferently and their 

 rate of growth is relatively slow assisted though it be by bacteriological 

 root-tubercles. Conservative exploitation and protection of existing 

 forests is essential in New Zealand. When the present remaining forests 

 have been cut out gone forever will be the Totara (Podocar pus totara G. 

 Benn.), the Matai (P. spicata R. Br.), the White Pine (P. dacrydioides 

 A. Rich.), the Silver Pine (Dacrydium westlandicum T. Kirk) and the 

 Rimu (D. cupressinum Soland.) which with Kauri (Agathis australis 

 Steud.) are the glories of New Zealand forests. Their place will be taken 

 by planted forests of exotic northern conifers of which Insignis and Laricio 

 Pines and Larch are destined to be dominant features. For home-grown 

 hardwoods New Zealand has yet to discover a suitable source of supply 



