112 ON THE TIMBER SUPPLY OF AUSTRALIA. 



used more than 600,000 tons of firewood in 1875. Add to this 

 the yearly increasing quantity of sleepers and firewood required by 

 our railways, the timber for our mines, and the fences for our 

 farmers and graziers, and I have no doubt it will make it clear to 

 you that something must be done for the future. Of late years this 

 subject — the necessity of preserving and planting forests — has 

 presented itself more forcibly to the attention of all civilised 

 Governments. Dr Hooker, of Kew Gardens, says, in a letter 

 dated October 22, 1873, addressed to the Under-Secretary (Her- 

 bert) : " The duty of conserving the natural resources of the 

 colonies for the benefit of future generations, whilst encouraging 

 a fair use of them by the present, is becoming the most pressing 

 and arduous duty of those entrusted with their government." This 

 was written after he had perused the rules for the conservation of 

 the Ceylon forests. Mr Dalzell, the Conservator of Forests, 

 Bombay Presidency, says in his observations on the influence of 

 forests : "It has been said that to pursue the progress of man step 

 by step in the destruction of forests, would be to write the history 

 of civilisation, as man is developed only at the expense of forest 

 vegetation. Hence an endeavour has been made to establish it as 

 a maxim that civilisation is antagonistic to the conservation of 

 forests. "When this sentiment is analysed it is more distinguished 

 for brevity than for truth, for it is in civilised countries such as 

 Germany and France that the conservation of forests is considered 

 of vital importance to the progress and well-being of man, and that 

 without forests these would become, like Asia Minor, the cradle of 

 the human race, a country of ruined cities. It is only in the first step 

 of civilisation that man is the enemy of forests." To some Govern- 

 ments, like that of Mauritius and some of the Leeward Islands, in 

 the West Indies, it is, or must become, the question of questions, 

 as most affecting the present or immediate future. Much as 

 France, Austria, Sweden, and especially Germany, have done for 

 the preservation and planting of forests, it is quite certain that 

 even in these countries timber and firewood are rising in value. 

 In North America forests were thought to be inexhaustible only 

 thirty years ago ; now, it is estimated that, while the "Western 

 States of the Mississippi already import timber, the whole region 

 east of the river will be without useful timber within another 

 twenty years. Even now the regular depth of this river is decreas- 

 ing every year, and sudden floods are occurring, which were 

 formerly unknown. American oak for shipbuilding is nearly 



