312 



EEPORT — 1891. 



The total area of forest at the disposition of the State in 

 1877 was as follows : — 



Auckland 

 Napier 

 Taranaki 

 Wellington 



Nelson 



Marlborough 



Westland 



Canterbury 



Otago 



Southland 



Acres. 

 960,000 

 138,000 

 1,027,000 

 773,305 



2,682,000 

 500,000 



2,623,550 

 207,700 



2,000,000 

 800,000 



Acres. 



2,898,305 



Total 



8,813,250 

 11,711,555 



That is to say, besides the acreage already alienated to 

 private individuals or still remaining in the hands of the 

 Maoris, there would seem to have been at the date in question 

 over eleven and a half millions of acres of forest out of a total 

 area of sixty-four millions. Captain Walker quotes Sir J. 

 Hector as giving the total area of forest in New Zealand as 

 12,130,000 acres, but considers that it is probably much more 

 than that ; and so it apparently is, for in the " Handbook of 

 New Zealand" for 1886 the estimated proportion of forest- 

 land — that is, the percentage of the entire area in each pro- 

 vincial district — is given as under : — 



Auckland. . 



Havvke's Bay 



Taranaki . . 



Wellington 



Nelson 



IMarlborough 



Canterbury 



Westland . . 



Otago and Southland 



Total Area of 

 Province. 



9'449 per cent, of 16,650,000 = 



11-803 

 83-003 

 57-142 

 14-434 

 19-301 



4-306 

 62-809 



8-729 



2,137,000 = 

 3,050,000 = 

 7,200,000 = 

 6,700,000 = 

 3,000,000 = 

 8,693,027 = 

 3,045,700 = 

 15,038,300 = 



Total 



Acres in 

 Forest. 



1,573,258 



252,230 



2,521,896 



4,114,224 



967,278 



579,030 



374,820 



1,912,973 



1,312,693 



13,607,902 



There are marked discrepancies between these figures of 

 1886 and the ones previously quoted from Captain Walker's 

 report of 1877. In some cases those of the later date are much 

 larger than those of the earlier. This might arise from the 

 the former including forest-lands already alienated by the 

 Crown and also those areas of woodland still possessed by the 

 Natives. The discrepancy, however, in the case of Nelson is 

 too great to be accounted for in this way. I have no means 



