58 



Speaking of cluster-pine plantations, it was shown in m}' last annual report that for every 

 £i spent now the country should reap an annual revenue of £i in thirtj^-five or fort}' years. And, 

 perhaps even better than this, the quarter of a million pounds sterling or more, now paid j'early to 

 the foreigner, would be kept in the country. It has been coinjiuted that nine-tenths of all the wood 

 used in the world is jiine, or wood of that class. 



During 1S96 the quantity of pine wood and wood of that class entered at the ports of Cape 

 Colony amounted to 4.967.1)45 cubic feet, ^•ahled at £^15,693. It is certain tliat cluster-pine, properly 

 grown in close plantations (and this is a very important and imperative proviso) would supply the 

 greater part of the present demand for pine wood. At present we have the pick of the pine forests 

 of the world, at prices so low that they cannot last long. In the future there is a certain market 

 for colonial pine wood. And, just as the w-orthy missionaries at Genadendal are now thanking the 

 foresight of their predecessors in planting the cluster-pine seventy years ago, so in another forty 

 years wiU the colonists of the future be indebted to those who plant cluster-pine now. 



And to these remarks we would add, the Austrahan of the future will feel grateful 

 to those who to-da\- lia\'e the foresight in planting Callitris and other indigenous 

 pines for the use of posterity ; and in regard to pine forestry, the time is evidently 

 not far distant, when action will ha\'c to be taken in regard to the depletion of 

 pines in New South \A'ales and Queensland, by the wholesale destruction of these 

 forests now taking place. 



In this connection, perhaps, no stronger argument can be advanced as to 

 the value of the Australian Pines as a national asset than the following, which 

 we have extracted from " The Australian Insurance and Banking Record," 

 21 December, 1909, p. 1016 : — 



The Queensland Government has lately sold some fair-sized forest areas. On 29th November 

 the biggest area yet offered in the State was offered. The sale was of the standing timber on 10,000 

 acres in the parish of Cooyar, on the route of the railway now being built to connect the Southern 

 Burnett with Brisbane, the quantity of Pine being estimated at 40,000,000 feet, with ten years for 

 removal. A condition was imposed providing for the erection of ^f 10, 000 worth of plant on or near 

 the area within two years, and the upset price was is. 6d. per 100 super, ft. The minimum quantity 

 of timber to be removed is 300,000 feet monthly, and the maximum 6,000,000 feet per annum. The 

 Queensland Pine Company, Limited, successors to Millar's Jarrah Conipany in Queensland, were the 

 purchasers at the upset. The Cooyar Scrub is said to be one of the best timber areas in Queens- 

 land, and the Government estimate is that it contains altogether 250,000,000 feet of Pine. 



Mr. MacMahon, the Director of Forests, Queensland, informs us that the 

 pine timber growing in this area is Araucaria Cunninghamii . 



The market price of this timber 12 in. x i in. in Sydney to-day is quoted 

 at {^1 4$. 6d. per 100 feet, and the contract price to the New South Wales Govern- 

 ment is 12^ per cent, discount off that amount ; so Hint tlic valui' of tlie Pine timber 

 estimated to be growing on the Cooyar Scrub alone — at the price to the consumer — 

 represents a sum of over £3,000,000. 



