BY A. MAULT. 133 



rubbish and tree stumps and so quickly overgrown with scrub 

 as to be more difficult and costly to clear than when in 

 primeval forest. 



It is time that a new policy in regard to this matter should be 

 adopted, or at least that a new system should be introduced to 

 supplement the present one. The rate at which our available 

 forests have disappeared and are disappearing is great, 

 and continually becoming greater. As nearly as I can esti- 

 mate from the replies received to my enquiries, from 

 70,000,000 to 100,000,000 square feet of sawn timber are pro- 

 duced yearly in the State, "f which about one-tenth is 

 exported. What the quantity is of unsawn and hand-sawn 

 timber, timber used for mining, fencing, splitting, and such 

 like purposes, wasted by splitters and burnt by bush fires, it 

 is almost impossible to guess, quite impossible to estimate ; 

 five or six times the quantity sawn is probably far below the 

 real quantity. So it is quite time to arrange how we are 

 going to supply such a consumption from our available 

 sources — that is, from accessible sources ; for there are 

 millions of acres no more accessible at present than if they 

 were in the moon. On the other hand, there are evident 

 signs that if we wish to secure any important share in the 

 markets of continental Australia, and South Africa and 

 England, we must be ready not only with an assuredsupply 

 of marketable timber, but with one of properly seasoned 

 timber. It behoves us, therefore, to prepare for action. 

 The best preparation we can make consists in organising 

 measures, one of the chief of which will be forest conserva- 

 tion. In adopting this we may dismiss all misgiving by the 

 knowledge of the fact that no country which has adopted it 

 has ever regretted its adoption. 



