TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K. 863 



Commission on Forestry (1901), are ' weak, unsystematic, and inefficient.' This 

 has been acknowledged at different times by the various Governments of the 

 Australian States, and desultory efforts to introduce some scheme of State regula- 

 tion have been made, but no scientific and comprehensive plan, on the lines laid 

 down by France, Germany, or India, has, apparently, been seriously considered 

 or, at any rate, attempted. Referring to the need of forest conservation and 

 management in Greater Britain, Professor W. Schlich says : ' Surely the time has 

 come— or rather it came some time ago — for a more vigorous forest policy on 

 sensible lines throughout the Empire. Let us strive to introduce systematic forest 

 management, more particularly into Canada and Australasia.' 



The labours of the Victorian Commission have resulted in a strong recommen- 

 dation that the action of the Government of India should be followed by the 

 legislatures of Australia, and a commission has been appointed for the purpose of 

 obtaining information and of recommending measures for dealing with the forests 

 in Western Australia. 



The forest areas of Australia. — The magnitude and importance of the interests 

 involved may be judged by the fact that the forest areas of Australia comprise 

 107,037,000 acres of marketable timber, or nearly half the areas of the forest lands 

 of Europe, excluding Russia. Of these areas Queensland possesses about forty 

 million acres. New South Wales twenty million, Victoria twelve million, South 

 Australia four million, AVestern Australia twenty million, and Tasmania eleven 

 million. To this should be added considerable areas in Queensland (over 100 

 million acres) and in Western Australia (over seventy million acres) covered with 

 inferior timber, which has a local value for building and for general purpose.?. 



Their nearness to the coast. — Most of the important forests of Australia are 

 fairly accessible from the sea. This especially applies to the belts of jarrah and 

 karri in Western Australia, and to Tasmania, whose forests of blue gum and 

 stringy bark grow down to the shores of that island. 



The commercial timbers of Australia. — The timbers of the Commonwealth are 

 of many varieties, and some of them are of high commercial value. The chief of 

 these, as shown in the great work of the late Baron von Mueller, are the eucalypts. 

 Of this valuable timber alone there are over 150 species. Besides the eucalypts 

 there are many kinds of casuarinas (the Australian oak), some conifers (theMoreton 

 Bay pine, the cypress pine, the brown pine, or colonial deal, and others), many 

 acacias (the Australian wattle), Banksias, and numerous other varieties. 



At present, however, the range of Australian wood available for British 

 commerce is limited. AVestern Australia and Tasmania are the only States that 

 have seriously dealt with the question of exporting timber or of using their forest 

 resources as a valuable commercial asset. 



Conclusion. — My object in bringing forward at these meetings a practical 

 subject of this nature is to aid, so far as one can, the efforts that are being put forth 

 by scientific as weU as commercial men to promote the interests of our colonies, 

 the development and progress of which cannot fail to be of deep concern to the 

 members of this Association. It will, I am sure, be readily granted that the more 

 widely the products and the possibilities of our great colonial possessions are 

 known, the more clearly will the fact be accentuated that our interests, whether 

 scientific, industrial, or commercial, are one. 



5. On the Preservation, Seasoning, and Strengthening of Timber 

 by the Powell Process. By WiM. Powell. 



The timber to be treated is put into a solution of common .sugar and water 

 (or the refuse syrup of beet-sugar refining, with added water) and boiled in this 

 solution until the air in the interstices of the timber is exhausted ; the timber, 

 still covered by the syrup, is allowed to cool down to 30° C. or less, by which 

 time the air-spaces are filled with syrup. The timber is then removed and dvied 

 fl,t a fairly high temperature in stores, 



