300 



South Australia is highest on the list, if the value is ap- 

 portioned per head of population in 1908, viz., 19s. 7d., while 

 Queensland is the lowest, with 4^d. It is remarked that the im- 

 ports are increasing at the rate of about one-third of a million 

 pounds annually. The per capita importation for the whole 

 Commonwealth is nearly as much as that for the United King- 

 dom. 



It may not he uninteresting to note here that the exports of 

 timber from the Commonwealth for 1908 totalled in value £1,039,114 

 of which Western Australia heads the list with over £640,000 

 worth, while South Australia is at the other end with nil. 



The political economist might find food for reflection in the 

 fact that more than nine-tenths of the value of timber exported 

 by Australia in 1908 was for undressed timber, while of the timber 

 imported from Norway, about six-sevenths of the total value was 

 for dressed timber. On the other hand, it is noticed that the 

 great bulk of the importation from the United States and New 

 Zealand is for undressed timber. Taking the imports and ex- 

 ports from all sources during 1908 we find that we received into 

 the Commonwealth dressed timber to the value of £324,997, and 

 exported only £7,438 worth. During the same year, the value 

 of undressed timber imported was £1,388,224, while that exported 

 amounted to £389,024. One is inclined to ask whether a much 

 larger proportion of timber exported could not have been dressed, 

 and so give greater employment to Australians. In fact, one 

 writer expresses the opinion that in one year a sum of nearly 

 £2,000,000 was lost to the industrial classes of the Commonwealth, 

 that amount representing the value of labour on the timber in the 

 country whence it was exported. 



An eloquent commentary on the rapid rate at which our 

 forests are being denuded is supplied in the figures showing 

 the quantity of local timber sawn or hewn in the Commonwealth. 

 In 1007 the total was (2)673,418,000 super, feet, and in 1908 it 

 amounted to 483,449,000 super, feet. In the latter year Western 

 Australia headed the list with 165,766,000 super, feet, New South 

 Wales coming next with 122,150,000 feet, while South Australia 

 was lowest with 436,000 feet; but, of course, from our point of 

 view this last-mentioned fact is rather a matter for congratulation. 

 Similarly the revenue earned by the Forests Departments will be 

 regarded from varying standpoints. Suffice it just to mention 

 that for the year 1907-8 the total for all the States Departments 

 was £125,112", and in 1908-9 £156,937, New South Wales in each 

 year having the highest and South Australia the lowest amount 

 of revenue. 



Probably the expenditure on the Forests Departments will 

 provide a more satisfactory method of gauging the opinion held 

 by the various Governments as to the importance or otherwise 

 in which the forests' question is viewed. More especially is this 

 so if the expenditure is incurred in the effort to reafforest the 

 country. 



(2) If the figures quoted are correct, there was more than three times 

 the quantity sawn, etc., in New South Wales in 1907 than in the four 

 preceding years. In the following year the figures returned to the more 

 normal quantity. This accounts for the reduction in the total of 1908 r 

 as compared with the previous year. 



