208 TlMEHRI. 
While timber is at its present price it would be idle 
to expect any direct assistance from those connected 
with that business. No doubt the present cost of pro- 
duction is enhanced by the distance that shipping timber 
has to be hauled, now that all within moderate reach of 
the main rivers and creeks has been used. But beyond 
the falls or rapids in the main rivers the forests are 
untouched, and it is a question for the Government to 
determine whether the time has not come for forcing a 
navigable channel through the various impediments which 
now practically close all the upper reaches of our rivers 
against navigation. Those who have seen the rivers in 
dry weather will readily believe that, by judicious use of 
dynamite, a free passage might be blasted through the 
majority of the so-called falls sufficient for ordinary flats 
to navigate for hundreds of miles beyond the present bar- 
riers; and thus the timber-lands and the country generally 
would be opened up. Steamers are even now subsidised to 
run a certain distance for the accommodation of a very 
sparse population and no production ; but if the opening up 
of the country is really the aim of the Government then 
certainly the rendering of the upper reaches of the rivers 
navigable ought to be considered, and when the exports 
from this opened up country are such as to warrant addi- 
tional outlay for conservation of the forests or otherwise, 
no doubt the supplies will be found. Without adding 
to the civil-list, an easy and it seems to me inexpensive 
remedy for prevention and detection, in addition to 
the valuable and well defined regulations of Mr. 
Mc'Turk as to size of timber and periods of cutting, 
would be brought about by providing that permits should 
