ON THE TIMBER SUPPLY OF AUSTRALIA. Ill 



special attention to our forests, and the supply of timber and fuel. 

 I may not be able to furnish much that is new, but the collection 

 into a small compass of available statistical information, and 

 extracts from various books, lectures, or speeches bearing upon the 

 question, but not accessible to everybody, may secui'e your atten- 

 tion for a short while, and show you that the preservation of our 

 never very extensive native forests is urgently required ; and I hope 

 you will only earnestly recommend the planting of forest trees on 

 a large scale. A thousand pities that the present planting season, 

 with such abundant rain, should be again lost. My statistical 

 information as to the number of persons who work in wood is 

 neither complete nor of a late date. In the year 1871 we had in 

 South Australia 6 manufactories of organs and pianos, 13 of 

 picture frames, 1 of washing machines, 16 establishments for boat 

 and ship building, 29 saw mills ; and in the municipalities alone 

 there were as long ago as in the year 1866 already 146 shops 

 occupied by carpenters and cabinetmakers, 18 by coopers, 12 by 

 turners, and 42 by wheelwrights. At least 30 of the more reputed 

 mines require in the aggregate an enormous quantity of both 

 timber and fuel. For the year 1873 coal and coke have been 

 imported into the colony for the sum of £88,002 ; timber of all 

 kinds (deducting re-exports) for the sum of £125,726, 5s. During 

 the first quarter of the year 1875 we have actually imported 

 timber for the very large sum of £62,971, and admitting that the 

 larger proportion of our present importation of timber consists, 

 of such kinds as we may pi'obably have to import, even if we 

 plant forests, it is yet noteworthy that we have not yet exported 

 one shilling's worth of our native timber against such large sums. 

 I think we are the only Australian colony which cannot or does 

 not export some kind of native timber. With the increase of 

 population this large importation will, however, not simply become 

 larger still, but must, even if we found coal, increase in the same 

 ratio as our supply of native timber decreases. To fortify this 

 position, it is best to give you an idea of the very great consump- 

 tion of firewood, and consequent rapid decrease of native timber. 

 As we have no peat, and only imported coals, the quantity of fire- 

 wood used in our households, considering our mild winters, is 

 proportionately large ; and we may assume that 15 tons of fuel, 

 irrespective of the consumption for manufactories, is consumed in 

 each of the 38,333 households which the census of 1870 enumer- 

 ated. With a consumption of 574,995 tons in 1870, we certainly 



