180 A. G. HAMILTON, 
narrow fringe of the plains were forest-clad, and that the major 
portion of the plains was treeless. Now this tree-covered part is 
probably not less than one-third of the total surface, that is to 
say, 103,000 square miles, or 65,920,000 acres of forest. The area 
cleared for, or under cultivation in 1890 was 2,688,486 acres ; 
and that ringbarked and partially cleared was 21,823,690 acres, 
making a total of 23,512,176 acres upon which the forest has been 
destroyed. The amount cleared for procuring timber for mining 
and other purposes is probably partly included in this. But to 
show the enormous amount of timber that has been used in coal- 
mining, | may say that mining managers calculate the cost of 
timber used in coal mines at one penny per ton of coal raised ; 
the timber averages £1 per 100 props, etc. These are of different 
sizes, but they average about half a cubic foot each. The total 
amount of coal raised in New South Wales up to the end of 1891 
is given in the Report of the Mines Department for that year as 
49,864,849 tons, which at one penny per ton for timber would be 
£207,770, from which we find the total timber to be 10,385,500 
cubic feet. Taking 200 cubic feet as the amount yielded by one 
tree, this would give us 51,942 trees destroyed for coal mining 
alone. In Victoria, the value of props, cap pieces, laths, slabs, 
sawn timber and firewood in 1867 was £561,123.* 
The total of land cleared in New South Wales quoted above 
does not, I presume include that cleared for townships, roads, 
telegraph-lines and railways, which would make a considerable 
addition, when it is considered that there are 32,000 miles of 
roads in New South Wales; 9,554 miles of railway in the Aus- 
tralian Colonies, (exclusive of private and colliery lines) and 
38,082 miles of telegraph lines in Australia, which includes 
11,497 miles erected in New South Wales. 
On the whole, it is probably within the mark to say that in 
New South Wales alone, probably one third of the total forests 
have been swept away since the colony was founded. Of course 
* R. B. Smyth, op, cit., p. 29. 
