Timbers for Export. 



As regards the exporb ti;ade, as the merits of our hard woods become 

 more fully realised, a largely increased demand may reasonably be expected to 

 set in for them. Our soft pine can probably be largely utilised for butter- 

 boxes. Our figured brush timbers have to win their way to recognition in 

 the world's markets. This will necessarily be slow, but we have much 

 valuable evidence as to their merits to encourage us to make them more 

 widely known. 



May I, at this place, insist that timbers of a kind should be kept together 

 in wood-paving? No two timbers are of such similar texture in all respects 

 that they wear absolutely "equally when formed into a roailway. A road 

 engineer would never dream of laying together stone cubes of various 

 materials. The irregularity in wear of a wooden roadway is especially detri- 

 mental, and I desire to raise my voice against the pernicious doctrine that 

 our timbers may be mixed in ' the same stretch of roadway. There is no 

 excuse for mixing them, as they can be readily separated by any man who 

 has devoted some attention to the subject, and timbers not of the first class 

 would stand a better chance of useful employment if they formed strips of 

 roadway by themselves. 



Substitution of inferior kinds of Timber. 



Too great care cannot be exercised in seeing that timber which is sent to 

 market, and particularly that intended for export, is not only good of its 

 kind, but also belongs to a species of acknowledged merit. In the case of 

 trees or timbers which bear a resemblance more or less strong to valuable 

 timbers, the greatest care should be exercised. Let no messmate, swamp, 

 white, cabbage, ribbon, or apple gums be sent forward, no matter how 

 well they may loot, for such timber as these, which decay readily, bring our 

 "timbers and the whole Colony into disrepute. Some of our good timbers are 

 i,dmittedly difficult to diagnose, particularly to the European buyer, and just 

 as they are winning their way to recognition on their own merits, it is a cruel 

 thing for careless or unprincipled suppliers to injure the trade. The pro- 

 mises held out as to the merits of our timbers are very carefully inquired 

 into in Europe, and the successful substitution of inferior timber can only 

 be temporary. To those of our millers who are situated near forests of our 

 best timbers it may seem ludicrous to issue a warning about swamp gum, 

 for instance, but many cases of the substitution, in this and other colonies, 

 ^f the most inferior timbers have come under my personal notice. The 

 system of Grovernment inspection of timbers for export, recently inaugurated, 

 may be valuable in creating confidence amongst buyers, but such a system, 

 to be efficacious, should be compulsory in regard to all shipments, at all 

 events for a short term of years, by which time buyers might be expected to 

 be conversant with our timbers. 



Merits of many of our Timbers as yet unknown. 



So few of our brush and other timbers have been tested by experts as 

 regards their merits for special uses, e.g., carving, wood-engraving (see 

 " Timbers for special purposes," page 26), that we are not yet in a position 

 to speak definitely in regard to them. The circumstances of a new country 

 have caused our timbers to be examined rather a:s materials of construction, 

 and so it is that we are far more fully informed as to their merits for 

 engineering and architectural works than as regards their less important, 

 (though not to be despised) minor uses. 



