17 



concerned; and as a corollary it would follow that each gene- 

 ration should take advantage of the facility thus brought 

 locally within its reach. I can assure this audience that 

 enlightened nations abroad do far more than this, and would 

 not rest satisfied with the greater facilities here enjoyed; they 

 provide, with keen forethought and high appreciation of their 

 duty for their followers, that beforehand which cannot be 

 called forth at any time at will. If we examine this part of 

 the question more closely, we shall find much to think about, 

 much to act upon. Not even all our eucalypts are of rapid 

 growth; they further belong to a tribe of trees with a hard 

 kind of wood, which, though so valuable for a multitude of 

 purposes, cannot supply all that the needs of life daily demand 

 from us for our industrial work. 



The quick -growing eucalypts, among which the blue-gum 

 tree of this colony and Tasmania stands pre-eminent, are com- 

 paratively few in number, nor are these few all of gigantic 

 size. They are, moreover, restricted in their natural occur- 

 rence to limited tracts of country, from which they must be 

 established by the hand of man in other soil for the neces- 

 sities of other communities for the gratitude of other popu- 

 lations. Then, again, the pines of foreign lands, often im- 

 pressing a splendour on their landscapes, must be brought to 

 our shores to our Alps with an intention of utilising every 

 square mile of ground, however unpromising in its sterility; 

 for, after all, that square mile represents a portion, albeit so 

 small, of the land surface of the globe. Look at the picture 

 on this wall; see how the Norway spruce (which gives us so 

 much of our deals and tar) insinuates its massive roots 

 through the fissures of disintegrating rocks, or, failing to 

 penetrate the stony structure, sends its trailing roots over the 

 surface and down the sides of the barest rocks until they 

 have found a genial soil, however scanty, on the edge of a 

 precipice. Nature ever active and laborious, ever wise and 

 beneficent allows the tree thus to live, thus to convert the 

 solid boulders finally into soil, and all the time adds un- 

 ceasingly to the treasures of the dominions of man. But just 

 as time with its measured terms in fleet course passes irresist- 

 ably onwards and irrevocably away, so also have we to await 

 the approaching time, which all our wishes cannot accelerate 

 in its unalterable measure. 



" Onward its course the present keeps, 

 Onward the constant current sweeps 

 Till life is done; 



