124 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



its most paying crop. As far as I was able to judge it would be 

 a comparatively easy matter to organise, to fire protect, and to 

 fill up with pine the present half-empty Jarah forests. A shade- 

 bearing conifer mixed with the Jarah would not only double or 

 treble the value of the Jarah forest, but would improve the Jarah 

 itself in the straightness of the timber and the better growth 

 following on improved soil conditions. Pines would probably 

 also spread themselves freely when once well introduced, as does 

 so much of the stronger vegetation of the Northern hemisphere 

 in Australia and New Zealand. 



The forest question of Australia has in recent years become 

 one of the most important social questions before the country. 

 With the reckless destruction of the home forests, the bill for 

 imported timber has been going up by leaps and bounds. 

 When the war broke out Australia was paying in round numbers 

 at the rate of ^^3, 500,000 yearly, or nearly p/^iooo a day, for 

 imported timber; and this had to be brought almost entirely 

 from the other side of the world. With the equally reckless 

 forestry of New Zealand, it must, in a few years, come entirely 

 from the other side of the world. The imported timber of 

 Australia in bulk represented the load of a good-sized steamer 

 arriving daily : about 50 million cubic feet yearly. 



If to this bill of ^^3,500,000 yearly for imported timber one 

 adds (i) the loss of the greater part of the hardwood market of 

 Europe which, with better forestry, Australia might have easily 

 captured, (2) the failure of timber for home use (native timber 

 for house building has doubled in cost during the last fifteen years 

 owing to the destruction of most of the accessible forests), we 

 arrive at the startling conclusion that under normal pre-war 

 conditions the reckless forestry of Australia is already costing the 

 • country some _;^8, 000,000 yearly. This figure is made up thus : — 

 Timber importation, normal before the war . ^3,500,000 

 Loss of export trade in hardwoods . . 2,500,000 



Shrinkage of home production — house timber, 

 fencing posts, railway sleepers, etc. — increas- 

 ing the cost of house-building, farming, rail- 

 ways, and living generally . . . 1,000,000 

 Indirect loss to various industries owing to the 

 rise in cost of the raw materials, timber and tan- 

 bark ; a rough estimate of the minimum loss 1,000,000 



Total . ;^8, 000,000 



