12 



requires 150,000 blackwood keys annually. On inquiry, I 

 have also learnt that the breakwater at Williamstown will 

 take 400 piles, equal to 18,000 cubic feet, and for the super- 

 structure of the piers 10,000 cubic feet more. The Melbourne 

 Gas Works required in 1870 not less than 40,000 superficial 

 feet of red-gum timber. The quantity of red-gum wood 

 required for these and other purposes cannot be increased by 

 supplies from Tasmania, as the tree does not exist there. 

 Again, the true blue-gum tree does not naturally occur beyond 

 Victoria and Tasmania. 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 straight 

 timber is still available, some serious realities would be 

 brought before us. 



At Ballarat, Creswick, Beechworth, Yackandandah, Sand- 

 hurst, Heathcote, Maryborough, Avoca, Castlemaine, Fryer's 

 Creek and Ararat, some of the timber for the mines has to be 

 brought already from distances as remote as 10 to 16 miles, 

 according to returns of the Mining Surveyor, kindly furnished 

 by Mr. R. Brough Smyth. At Pleasant Creek the miners 

 have to go every year a mile further for their wood. 



I quote the following important statement from Mr. R. B. 

 Smyth's Mineral Statistics of Victoria for 1870 : 



Table showing approximately the Quantity and Cost of Timber con- 

 sumed annually for Mining Purposes in tlie several Mining Dis- 

 tricts, from Returns made by the Mining Surveyors and Regis- 

 trars. 



d. 



