146 AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 



EXTENSION OF LUMBER TRADE. 



With a population of only about 150,000, the trade in American 

 timber is not capable of much extension, but the expected development 

 of the mineral deposits may, before long, lead to expansion. 



A. Gr. WEBSTER, 



Consul. 

 HOBART, February 20, 1894. 



VICTORIA. 



BUSINESS DEPRESSION. 



Tn the closing months of the year 1889 what is known as the "land 

 boom," which for the preceding three or four years had caused a large 

 increase in the consumption of building materials, collapsed, and as 

 importations of lumber, based on the same rate of consumption being 

 kept up, continued to eome in for a long time, the market for timber 

 has been suffering ever since from the accumulation so caused and the 

 absence of any revival in the trade to clear it off. 



Carpenters or timber workers are in a very unhappy condition at the 

 present time. The managing partner of one of the largest timber houses 

 here says that not more than one-third of the business done in their 

 trade two years ago is being done now. In one large establishment 

 which gave work to 150 men in 1892 only 48 hands are now employed, 

 and these only at half time. To put it in another way, two years ago 

 the firm was paying 500 ($2,430) a week in wages, now they are pay- 

 ing under 100 ($486). The figures are representative of the condi- 

 tion of the trade generally. Moreover, in the boom time a crowd of 

 firms came into existence which are no longer in evidence firms begot- 

 ten of prosperity which adversity as readily suppressed. It is calcu- 

 lated that at least 30 shops of that character have been closed in the 

 city. 



Literally nothing is required in the trade in Melbourne, which 

 embraces half the population of the colony, but there is a small demand 

 for prepared timber from the country which keeps city mills slightly 

 employed. But for the country business and the butter trade, which 

 utilizes for boxes about 2,000,000 super feet of silver pine annually, the 

 timber industry would be at a complete standstill. 



The timber required for the butter trade has to be imported from 

 New Zealand, there being, it is said, no sufficiently odorless wood in 

 this colony. 



NATIVE WOODS. 



The native woods of the colony are all very hard and not well 

 adapted for building, though admirable for other purposes. 



