18 Transactions.—Miscellaneous. 
ings, and varied tints, which would prove of high commercial value in 
Europe. For the purpose of exportation to Europe, New Zealand timbers 
may be divided into three classes :— 
The first class to include timbers well adapted for the manufacture of 
furniture, cabinet work, etc., such as rewarewa, which, by lapse of time, 
assumes an extreme beauty, and the appearance of tortoise-shell. Then 
maire comes in for a more serious style of furniture, superior in beauty to 
old oak. Next we have all the varieties of waved and mottled kauri, 
rimu, totara, etc., all of exquisite beauty, far exceeding that of any wood 
known in Europe. 
The second class to include timbers well adapted for ornamental works, 
where the adequate strength of the wood is required, such as inlaid floor- 
ings, when they are intended for ornamentation, panels, ete., for which rimu 
is prominently a suitable timber. 
The third class to include timbers intended to supply the place of oak in 
its special uses, the scarcity and high commercial value of that timber being 
much felt in all European markets at the present time. The cause of the 
diminishing supply of oak and other hardwoods in Europe may be partly 
ascribed to the extension of railways, but principally to the progressive ex- 
 haustion of the product in countries where forest conservation is not carried 
out. Thus, from scarcity of those timbers, and high prices for the same, 
originated the introduction of iron ship-building, and also, so far as prac- 
ticable, the more general adaptation of light woods to various building pur- 
poses. Oak however, cannot be replaced by iron or light wood in its essential 
uses; and in the many descriptions of New Zealand strong timbers will be 
found the requisite qualities to supply the place of that standard timber in 
Europe, in each of its special uses. ; 
The prineipal outlets for the exchange of our forest produce should be 
England and France. 
England is anxiously looking to her colonies for the supply of her 
enormous eonsumption of timber and wood, which, according to a recent 
statement taken from The Economist, represents a yearly value of 
£170,000,000. Canada contributes, for a value of about £5,000,000 per 
annum, towards these excessive requirements.* But forests in the 
Dominion are given up to waste and devastation, no effectual steps 
being taken to prevent their ultimate destruction, and hardwood is fast 
disappearing in all its provinces. 
* During five years ending 1876, Canada exported to the United Kingdom— 
Timber and wood, to a total value of .. .. 24,033,926 
Corn and grain em 
m Ki res . . 16,596, 
(Colonial Timbers, Colonial Office, England.) 
