534 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 



It is one thing to ask the question ; it is quite another to get a 

 reassuring answer. What, then, are the probable results of 

 deforestation in South Australia and, relatively, to other portions 

 of this continent ? 



The result regarding the timber supply is very marked. The 

 best timber available under present conditions of price and labor 

 has without doubt been cut. Something has been done by the 

 State in planting, and although that work will undoubtedly prove 

 a thoroughly paying one, it is a drop in the ocean compared with 

 the area required to supply the demand for timber which will arise 

 when supplies from other lands get more restricted, the probability 

 of which gets stronger and stronger. In many quarters the failure 

 of outside supplies is regarded as a matter of the strongest im- 

 probability ; they who hold such views quite overlook one thing, 

 namely, that the amount of timber in a virgin forest that gets 

 fairly treated and utilised to the full is as nothing to the vast 

 quantity that gets scandalously wasted by lumber men and 

 destroyed by fires. Late in the day, when all the best forest areas 

 in South Australia, lying nearest to centres of industry, and therefore 

 capable of yielding better revenue, had passed into private hands, 

 the importance of forest reservation was recognised, and such 

 forest areas as were still available were placed under systematic 

 oversight. The total area thus reserved amounted to under a 

 quarter of a million acres, and even of this only about one-third 

 could justly be termed proper forest land, the remainder being 

 mere scrubby inferior growth not worth the name of timber. It 

 seems as if the trend of present land legislation is toward undoing 

 everything that was formerly attempted in the way of forest con- 

 servation ; and thus it appears probable that history may repeat 

 itself, inasmuch as it was under pressure of temporary exigencies 

 in other countries that the forest areas were devastated without 

 regard to the results in store for future generations. 



As a matter of fact, the indifference regarding the regeneration 

 of our forest areas has caused the disappearance of every con- 

 siderable area of the red gum (Eucalyptus rostrataj, the timber of 

 which, when of best quality, can be excelled by few timbers the 

 world over for certain purposes. The blackwood (Acacia melan- 

 oxylon), a beautiful and most useful timber for manufacture for 

 ornamental purposes and carriage-builders' uses, which at one 

 time was procurable in saleable quantities from our Mount Lofty 

 Ranges, is now all imported ; while, in the South-East as well as in 

 the Adelaide tiers, the stringybark (Eucalyptus ohlupiaj, a timber 

 of considerable utility in some ways, stands poor chance of in- 

 creasing by self-sown seedlings owing to the practice of burning 

 the forest tracts to increase the fodder supply in the South-East 

 and to clear the hills near Adelaide. These fires frequently " get 

 away " from the tract they were intended to operate on, and often 

 effect a vast amount of mischief. As all good timber will cer- 



