EUCALYPTUS TEEES. 59 



cognizant that we cannot think of coal-fields as inex- 

 haustible, even in the richest coal countries ; and, 

 although it is to be hoped that the day is very distant 

 when the ch^ap results of colliery work will be marred 

 by the much - increasing depth of the coal mines, 

 or their partial exhaustion, yet we cannot altogether 

 discard the idea that, so far as coals are concerned, 

 we are working on a capital, however large it may 

 be, without ever adding to it. In Victoria, we can 

 neither augment the supply of burning material by 

 peat, such as is so extensively utilized for fuel in the 

 countries of the North, except we bring a very similar 

 and equally useful peat from the distant and rug- 

 ged heights of our Alpine mountains. 



Although science has promised us prophetically 

 other sources for applied heat — and I may add, motive 

 power — in gases not yet within our technic reach 

 or of universal application, we have, nevertheless, to 

 deal with the stern realities of the day until new sci- 

 entific achievements in this direction shall have been 

 accomplished. At best, and looking ever so hopefully 

 forward to the successes of the future, we cannot sub- 

 stitute in an endless array of purposes air or coal for 

 the ever- wanted living wood, even if all that concerns 

 climate and health could be left out of our contempla- 

 tion. As an instance, then, of our present consump- 

 tion, or almost immediate requirements of wood, I 

 would like to quote one or two examples. 



The able Engineer - in - chief of the Railway De- 

 partment — T. Higinbotham, Esq. — has obligingly 

 supplied me with the following data in reference to 

 the timber at present consumed for the Government 

 railway lines, This gentleman explains also what will 



