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licensing system would be avoided, and a large block of forest could be supervised almost 

 as easily as if it were closed for working, one guard being sufficient for the purpose ; (6) , 

 the regular supply of a large number of sleepers, and the facility of procuring any special 

 pieces of timber required for public works ; (c), a thorough working of the forest, such 

 as could not be attained in selling trees one by one ; (d), the saving that would be 

 effected in working systematically on a suitable scale. 



The fine Gouna forest, at the Knysna, is worked successfully on a similar plan, and 

 the cost of the sleepers produced is less than that of sleepers bought from contractors. 

 In the scheme which I propose, the work would not be purely departmental, as the 

 felling, slipping and riding would be performed by contract, and only part of the sawing 

 by the Government. I am not sure that private enterprise conld be depended upon for 

 working the Grown forests thoroughly, and where it is possible to utilise them success- 

 fully, by exercising some small amount of Government interference, it would be unwise 

 not to do so. 



There is evidence that Yellowwood, which is a very porous wood, though of con- 

 siderable strength, may be impregnated sufficiently by simple immersion in a solution of 

 chloride of zinc. If this proves to be the case, there would be no difficulty in working 

 the yellowwood in some of the remote forests ; one or two immersion tanks in the 

 neighbourhood would then be all that is required for the preparation, and it would be 

 possible to send the sleepers to the nearest point of the railway system, instead of 

 Maritzburg. In the Newcastle forests, for instance, simple immersion might prove of 

 great value in promoting a sleeper industry. The sleepers would have to be immersed 

 at least a fortnight, in cement tanks ; then left to dry for a month before use. 



The Coast forests are nearly all in private hands, but they might be made to yield a 

 considerable supply of sleepers. At Umzimkulu, there are forests not far from Port 

 Shepstone, in which a large number of sleepers might be cut and shipped to Durban for 

 preparation. The timber of Coast forests is of small size and would yield few square 

 sleepers, but I have shown in Appendix III., how this difficulty is usually got over by 

 allowing a greater proportion of wane edge when the width of the sleeper is increased in 

 sufficient proportion to give at least the same strength and all the advantages of a square 

 sleeper. 



WOOD DEPOT. To obviate the difficulty which is often experienced in procuring 

 seasoned timber for public works, at short notice, it would be useful to establish a small 

 timber depot, either at one of the forests where the manufacture of sleepers is carried 

 under Government control, or at the central factory where the wood is prepared, to season 

 and store sawn timber and logs that may be required from time to time by the Railway 

 Department, the Colonial Engineer's Department, or the Harbour Board at Durban. 



