KUCALYPTUS TREES. 31 
deferred. It may certainly be argued that in the 
eastern portion and some of the southern parts of the 
Victorian territory abundance of forests still exist — 
enough to supply all wants for many years to come, 
This is perfectly true in the abstract ; but how does 
this argument apply, when we well know that such 
timber occurs in secluded places, mostly on high and 
broken ranges, without roads. And even if the latter 
were constructed — which certainly will be required 
gradually—at what price can such timber be conveyed 
to the required distance ? Suppose, however, that 
all these difficulties had been overcome, whence are 
we to obtain the deals of northern Pines, the boards 
of the Red Cedar, and the almost endless kinds of 
other woods which future artisans will require ? For, 
assuredly, neither Europe nor North America can 
sustain the heavy call on their indigenous and even 
planted forests for an indefinite period tocome. Trop- 
ical woods might for a time be brought from the jun- 
gles of three continents, but certainly not at a small 
cost. Besides, tropical trees, as a rule, are not gre- 
garious ; we cannot judge beforehand, in every in- 
stance, of their durability and other qualities; we 
cannot recognize their extraordinary variety of sorts 
specifically from mere inspection of the logs, and we 
should find ourselves soon surrounded by endless dif- 
ficulties and perplexities were we to depend on such 
resources alone. Would it not be far wiser timely to 
create independent resources of our own, for which 
we have really such great facility ? With equal ear- 
nestness another aspect of the timber question, as con- 
cerning our national economy, forces itself on our 
reflection. The inhabitable space of the globe is not 
