THE FORESTS OF AUSTRALIA. 39 



out the fire. A man can hurry down hill, and a forester wants 

 no hurrying when he has the chance of scotching a forest fire at 

 the outset ! Of course, there is nothing in this except organisa- 

 tion. When a forest or a house is on fire the first essential is to 

 be on to it without a moment's delay. But compare this with 

 the present state of things. The forest may burn for several 

 days before the forester, living at a distance, or at best in an 

 adjoining town or village, knows anything about it. By then 

 it may be uncontrollable. For as soon as a forest fire gets a 

 good hold it creates a great upward rush of heated air, which 

 feeds its own flames. Then the disaster becomes a national one. 

 When some of the foresters in South Africa first went to the 

 hilltops there was some grumbling from the wives. Why should 

 they be called upon to forsake the fleshpots of Egypt and be 

 buried in the clouds ? Now they like their highland homes, and 

 the rosy cheeks of the children show their healthiness. 



Australia at this moment is spending about p/^io,ooo per day 

 on imported softwood. Statistics show that the cost of the 

 timber imported to Australia, nearly all softwood, has now 

 reached the alarming total of ^^3, 500,000 yearly. And the 

 figure is rapidly rising. Victoria spent ;^i, 500,000 last year 

 on imported timber (premier's speech, November 11). This 

 was nearly all softwood. The most urgent necessity exists in 

 Australia to follow the example of South Africa, and lay down 

 plantations of softwood. Experience in South Africa has 

 shown that some of the most valuable pine and other coniferous 

 timbers can be planted with ease to produce timber equal in 

 quality to the best of the imported Oregon and Baltic deal. 



There is this feature, too, with reference to the planting of 

 exotic softwood in the forests of Australia. Australia is an old- 

 world land ; for geological ages it has been cut off from the rest 

 of the world, and the great struggle for existence and the survival 

 of the fittest which has been going on in the flora and fauna of 

 the rest of the globe has been absent in Australia. The result 

 is that when any member of the stronger flora and fauna of 

 the world, strengthened by the fight, gets into Australia it is 

 liable to spread amazingly in its easy new home, provided, of 

 course, the climatic conditions are suitable. This is a trite 

 observation, but it is necessary to bring home my point. 

 Rabbits, trout, various birds, and all sorts of weeds have spread 

 and are spreading apace in Australia, but the forest world (which 



