3i8 



Mr. Jasper Morgan of New Italy, writing on tlio "^loreton Bay Pine/' 

 Aruiuiirid CiiiiiiiiiglidDiii, states: — "I am informed that forty years ago the 

 ridges on the Lower Richmond were covered with what appeared to be an 

 inexhaustible supply of this \arict\'. A saw-mill to cut up the iiinc was started 

 at Lismore about 1856; followed by se\cral otluTs at cHlfiTcnt parts of the river, 

 with the result tliat untold nullions of feet were used or shipped away since that 

 time; while in addition great quantities were destroyed in clearing the ground. 

 Specimens were often cut, which girthed zz or 2^ feet. As a natural conseciuencc, 

 at the present tiuie, this pine is rapid) \- becoming a tree of the past on the Lower 

 Richmond. This timber is now procm-ed from the T-]ig Scrub, being brought uito 

 Lismore bv rail and raftiui? it down the riA-er. This shows the scarcitv of the 

 timber in this jnirt. But on the ranges at the head of the Riclimond, miles above 

 Casino, there is a vast supply, which one would think inexhaustible. Looking, 

 however, at the way it has disappeared on the Lower Richmond, it appears to be 

 only a matter of time for these forests of pine to chsappear also." 



Dr. Schlich, in a recent able paper read before the Lnperial Institute, has 

 shown how the pine-timber supplies of the world are reaching a visible termination. 



A warning note such as this should be sufficient to induce, not merely this 

 State, but the whole of Australia, to now take up the question of pine conservation, 

 for it seems certain that Hoop Pine, Brown Pine^ Bunya Bunya, Port Macquarie 

 Pine, White Pine, and Queensland Kauri, properl}' grown in close plantation (and 

 this is a very important and imperati\'e ])roviso), would soon supply the greater 

 part of any future 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. Locally 

 there is a certain market for our Colonial pine woods, as our light timbers are 

 excellent substitutes for American and Baltic timbers, whilst the white-ant- 

 resisting qualities of our interior species of Callitris will always enhance the value 

 of that timber above others for house-building, &c., in certain parls of -Vustralia. 



It has been computed that nine-tenths of all the wood used in the world 

 is pine, or wood of that class. 



1. Araucaria Cunninghamii, 



Ait. in Sweet, Hurt. Brit. 475. 

 " ]\()()V:' "COLDXIAL," OR " MORICTOX BAY PINE." 



I 1ai;i i.\T. 



North Coast District, New South Wales, and Sduthern Coast District, 

 Queensland. 



