18 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



ings, and varied tiiits, which would prove of high comrQercial vahie 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, etc., 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 principal 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 consumption of timber and wood, which, according to a recent 

 statement taken from The Economist, represents a yearly value of 

 ^6170,000,000. Canada contributes, for a value of about ^65,000,000 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 

 disaj)pearing in all its provinces. 



* During five years ending 1876, Canada exported to the United Kingdom — 

 Timber and wood, to a total value of . . . . £24,633,226 



Corn and grain 16,536,983 



(Colonial Timbers, Colonial Office, England.) 



