16 Transactions:— Miscellaneous. 
remarked that the financial interest of States is not governed by the same 
principles as those of private individuals. Private individuals may derive 
interest or profit from the investment of capital, which as a rule States do 
not. Thus, private individuals are able to find their own pecuniary interest 
by selling trees on their estate as soon as they attain marketable dimensions 
even before maturity, because the cash realized by the sale is expected to 
increase, through interest or profit, to such an amount as to be far above 
the value of the trees at the time of their maturity. States, as a rule, have 
no capital to invest at interest or otherwise; their receipts go to pay their 
expenditure, and so far as the revenue is derivable from State forests the 
larger amount of money the standing timber will reach at the auction sales 
the better it will be for the public purse. The fact that a full-grown tree is 
worth more money than one of less dimensions, need not be mentioned 
(particularly old trees of high value for the manufacture of furniture, etc). 
Therefore, whilst the State is in possession of a stock of old trees more 
than sufficient to supply the demand, the present as well as the future interest 
of the Treasury will be found in the application of the rule, that trees should 
not be felled before full maturity. ‘‘ Arbores magne diù crescunt," 
VIII.—Economic AND COMMERCIAL VALUES or New ZEALAND TIMBERS. 
Experiments for ascertaining the intrinsic value of New Zealand timbers 
were most carefully and skilfully made eighteen years ago, in Dunedin, 
under the direction of the late Mr. Balfour, C.E.; also, as a means for : 
comparison, tables showing the values of.European timbers, experimented 
on by Mr. Barlow, were prepared by the same talented engineer. 
Preparatory to the consideration of the value of New Zealand timbers 
in European markets, the following statements, abstracted from Mr. 
Balfour's reports, are aubmitted, and will render it unnecessary to state 
the results of personal investigations, leading, as they do, to the same 
opinion as expressed by the late Mr. Balfour, viz., ** That the New Zealand 
woods compared very fairly with those we have been accustomed to con- 
sider as standards, the absolute strength of very many being above that of 
the British oak.” 
