PRESENT AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF 

 TIMBER IN TASMANIA. 



Paper readiby W. Heyn, Timber Department, Admiralty Harbour 

 Works, Dover, at a Meeting of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 

 29tli April, 1901. 



After introductory remarks, Mr. Heyn proceeded 

 to say — 



You will naturally ask me why I came out to Tas- 

 mania, a long distance of some 13,000 or 14,000 miles (a 

 few hundred more or less not being of much matter) 

 from England ; what I came for, and the probable 

 results of such a long journey. Had I come to see and 

 admire the lovely scenery of your island, or to revel in 

 the delightful air of one of the most perfect climates I 

 have ever experienced, or other charms, I acknow- 

 ledge that I would have been amply repaid for the 

 protracted sea voyage and loss of time by what I 

 have seen and enjoyed since my arrival in Hobart. 

 But, as a business man, I must confess that none of 

 these reasons actuated me in coming to Tasmania, for, 

 to tell the truth, until I actually saw and experienced 

 them, I never once imagined that such a beautiful island 

 existed. The facts arc these : In the English Channel, 

 which, as you know, separates England from France, we 

 have not along the whole stretch of coast, from the Isle 

 of Wight to the mouth of the Thames, a single harbour 

 of refuge, or marine station worthy of the name, or suit- 

 able for the large-sized ships, of which our naval and 

 merchant services are now principally composed. You, 

 who have one of the finest, if not the finest, natural 

 harbours in the world, can scarcely understand what the 

 want of a good, safe, and easily-entered harbour means 



