142 Transactions.—Miscellaneous. 
less continuity right across the country to the Waiau valley, and its 
resources are comparatively unknown. The timber on the seaboard is good, 
but that in the interior is supposed to be scrubby. There is a considerable 
quantity of birch in the seaboard forest from Martin Bay to Preservation 
Inlet, but round the south and east coasts they consist of pines and the 
other common varieties. Stewart Island is one large pine forest, with a fair 
sprinkling of rata. Southland is remarkably well supplied with timber. 
A glance at the map shows an alternation of bush and open country that 
resembles the conception of a landscape gardener more than a natural 
arrangement. These isolated patches of forest embrace the whole width of 
the country, and extend 50 miles inland. One of the largest bushes in the 
interior of the province extends along the face of the Eyre mountains from 
the Five rivers to the Te Anau lake, including the Mararoa district. It 
covers about 400 square miles. This and the lake forests, altogether about 
400,000 acres, are all birch. The principal forests now available near the 
sea, in Southland, are from Riverton to the Waiau, sixteeen miles long by 
twelve broad; and the seaward bush, from Invercargill to the Mataura, 
twenty miles long, and from two to three broad. The Ototara, Waikiwi, and 
Makarewa bushes in the vicinity of Invercargill are also of considerable 
extent. Following up the coast the next large forest is the Tautuku bush, 
extending from Waipapa point to the Clutha river, a distance of forty-five 
miles and inland about twelve. We have then smaller patches at Kaitangata, 
Akatore, Dunedin, Waikouaiti, and Otepopo. The principal isolated bushes 
in the interior occur at Waiporai, Tapanui, and Switzers. Except on the 
west coast, where it descends to sea level, birch does not exist in forests 
below an altitude of 900 feet. 
The principal supply of provincial timber for the Dunedin market comes 
from Southland and Catlin river, where the forests are accessible to water 
and railway carriage. Although Stewart Island is particularly well 
favoured in respect to harbour accommodation, its isolated situation has 
hitherto been a barrier to the development of the timber trade, and the west 
coast supplies have never been touched. 
Classification. 
Timbers are usually arranged into classes, according to their botanical 
or structural affinities and peculiarities. The most common arrangement 
at home is to divide them into leafwoods and pinewoods, which keeps the 
hard and soft kinds separate; but this mode of classification would not 
have the same result in New Zealand. I shall therefore consider the Otago 
timbers under two heads, with the conventional names of ‘ Hardwoods ” 
and ** Softwoods.” 
