l6 Transactions, — Miscellaneous, 



remarlied tliat the financial interest of States is not governecl by the same 

 principles as those of private inclividiials. 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. " Arbor es magna diii crescunt." 



VIII. — Economic and Commercial Values of 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 

 oiDinion 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." 



