EUCALYPTUS TREES. 25 
that it will be quite safe to reckon on their lasting for 
eighteen years. The ordinary Gums, when used for 
sleepers, will not last more than half that time. 
‘¢ The quantity of timber required for fencing the 
North-eastern railway will be one million eighty-six 
thousand cubie feet. The fence-posts will be of Red 
Gum, Iron-bark, Blue Gum, or Box, and the rails of 
Stringy-bark. Ithink that a fence of these materials 
will last for eighteen years. As to projected railways, 
it seems to be probable that on the average from thir- 
ty to forty miles will be made for the next ten years, 
in addition to the North-eastern railway already in 
progress. ’’ 
I am further told, by a gentleman conversant with 
our railway affairs, that the engines on the present 
Government line use about three thousand tons of 
wood a year, while about eight hundred tons more 
are consumed on the stations. The Government line 
requires one hundred and fifty thousand Blackwood 
keys annually. On inquiry, I havealso learned that 
the breakwater at Williamstown will take four hun- 
dred piles, equal to eighteen thousand cubic feet, and 
for the superstructure of the piers ten thousand cubic 
feet more. The Melbourne Gas-works required, in 
1870, not less than forty thousand superficial feet of 
Red Gum timber. The quantity of Red Gum wood 
required for these and other purposes cannot be in- 
creased by supplies from Tasmania, as the tree does 
not exist there. Again: the true Blue Gum-tree 
does not naturally occur beyond Victoria and Tasma- 
nia. If complete wood statistics could be collected, 
both of our daily requirements in town, on land, and 
on sea, and statistics also as to what really sound and 
2 %8 
