IMPORTED TIMBER 29 



to the facile British markets, and the imports from 

 America and Canada largely increased. Even 

 distant Australia was able to compete. 



It will be asked why, with this large demand for 

 materials in the country, we could not continue to 

 take a hand in its supply, since we were on the spot. 

 The answer is twofold, and I will give the one most 

 flattering to our vanity the precedence. The timber 

 imports which came into this country from early 

 in the nineteenth century up to the outbreak of the 

 war were mostly cut from trees growing in primeval 

 forests situated close to water, so that the carriage 

 was entirely water-borne — the cheapest method of 

 transport ; further, these trees had not been grown 

 by man, and therefore had not to bear the costs of- 

 such cultivation, and lastly, the price paid for them 

 standing in the forest by the wood merchant was 

 but a small fraction of their value. Thus even 

 had we had the same quality of material, we should 

 have found it difficult in many cases to put it on 

 the market on the same terms as the imported article. 

 But we had not the quaUty or kinds of timber the 

 changed conditions of the market now demanded. 

 Nor did we attempt to grow them. The history 

 of British forestry after the great changes on the 

 markets is in fact a most pitiable one. The Govern- 

 ment, quite rightly so at the time perhaps, grasped 

 the changed conditions, attracted imports, and paid 

 no further attention to British forestry, which, so 

 far as they were concerned, had had its day. But 

 the Crown forests and the woods on private estates 

 still continued to be kept up and managed on the old 



