297 



had large plantations of them, and some agriculturists had given 

 up wheat-growing, and had substituted timber, while one enter- 

 prising American expected to have nearly a million trees in six 

 or seven years' time, worth 10s. each. It must be remembered 

 that trees in Australia grow much more rapidly than those in 

 colder climates. For instance, it is said that gums 24 years 

 old, equal in size and carry more wood than oaks 300 years old. 

 I understand that eucalypts grow even quicker in California than 

 they do in their native land. Over thirty species of eucalyptus 

 could be named, which are useful for such purposes as railway 

 sleepers, bridge work, fencing, flooring, piles, poles, wood-pav- 

 ing, spokes, felloes, naves, girders, tool-handles, planes, house- 

 building, rafters, etc. Suffice it to mention ironbark, box, red 

 gum, jarrah, and karri. Then for flooring, ceiling, packing- 

 cases, butter boxes, and interior work, we have various pines, 

 such as hoop, brown, Cypress, and Murray pine. For furniture 

 and cabinet work there are the finer-grained timbers of rosewood, 

 red bean, white beech, silky oak., tulip wood, blackwood, satin- 

 wood, and sandalwood. 



Before proceeding further, let me give some idea of how 

 Australia stands in comparison with other countries in regard 

 to forests. From a table in "The Official Year-Book of the Com- 

 monwealth," it seems that out of 19 selected countries there are 

 only three which have less forest area than Australia, viz., 

 Cape of Good Hope, Algeria, and the United Kingdom. 



Following are the figures for some of the representative coun- 

 tries, showing the relative area of forest lands : — 



Cape of Good Hope ... ... ... 0*19 



Algeria ... ... 3*17 



United Kingdom ... ... ... ... 3-96 



Australia ... ... ... ... ... 5'36 



British India ... ... 10-83 



France 15*65 



Japan 18*98 



Norway 21-13 



Canada 22-23 



Germany 25*90 



New Zealand 29*83 



United States 33-67 



Russia in Europe ... ... ... ... 43-04 



Now, with our 5 per cent, forest area, how much is specially 

 reserved for timber? In the table which first came under my 

 notice, this proportion was given as 0*81 per cent., but I find 

 that owing to the total forest area in Western Australia being 

 now reserved, the figures in the latest report are increased to 

 1*90 per cent. For the purpose of illustration, let us take a 

 familiar one in money values. Suppose all Australia to be 

 represented by £1 ; then the proportion of forest area is not 

 quite equal to Is. Id., while a sum of about 5d. represents the 

 specially reserved area of forests. (See table, page 305.) 



Of course, some States are more favoured by Nature than 

 others in the way of forest endowment. For instance, while 

 South Australia has only 3,840,000 acres, Queensland has over 

 40,000,000 acres. These are the extremes in the Commonwealth. 



How are we using the talents entrusted to us in this matter? 

 In other words, how much of what we have are we setting aside for 



