412 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [Dec. 
fuel, briquetting, improved locomotive and stationary boiler design, colloidal 
fuel, and all such devices to render the use of slack economically possible. 
Unfortunately the great value of this full report cannot-be indicated 
in this inadequate review ; but those who are aware of the previous dark¬ 
ness will appreciate the light shown on this intricate and little-understood 
industry. S. H. J. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
Introduced Plants. 
(The following extract from a personal letter is of general interest.— Ed.) 
I have just seen in the September number of the N.Z. Journal of Science 
and Technology a most interesting note on the introduction of foreign 
animals and plants to New Zealand, and I would say that I am very glad 
to see that you are now perfectly aware of the danger threatening your 
native flora and fauna from all sorts of pests introduced by foolish people, 
entirely ignorant of the consequences of such introduction of foreign organ¬ 
isms. During my all-too-short stay in your wonderfully interesting and 
charming country it was a constant sorrow to me to see the pitiful trans¬ 
formation of natural scenery brought about by the devastation of the 
native forest, and the contemporaneous spreading of plants from anywhere 
—gums from Australia, oaks from Europe, willows and gorse from England, 
cypresses from California ! As I said in a lecture I gave in Palmerston 
North to the Naturalists’ Club, if a naturalist was transported without his 
knowledge to New Zealand he would probably believe that he was in a 
curious sort of hybrid country, seeing this mix-up of plants from anywhere 
and none of those belonging to the country itself—and that in a country 
where you have such glorious native trees as the rimu, the pohutukawa, 
and many many others, both trees and flowering-shrubs. . . 
What has been done to your native plants is certainly a shame. I 
think such introduction of foreign plants or animals should be regarded 
as a real crime, and of the worst kind. I hope you will not take ill these 
remarks from a foreign naturalist, who loves your country. 
(Dr.) T. Mortensen. 
Universitetets Zoologiske Museum, Copenhagen, 17th December, 1918. 
Waipoua Kauri Forest. 
Sir, —In your May issue, reviewing Waipoua Kauri Forest , its Demar¬ 
cation and Management ,” it is mentioned, 44 The value of the present stand 
of timber will be used up in getting the forests into working-order.” That, 
however, is not so. It should be noted that the £500,000 worth of work 
estimated to be waiting over at Waipoua includes not only the getting of 
the forests into working-order, but the logging and sawing of the timber ; 
so that against this £500,000 worth of expenditure there is the value of the* 
sawn timber, which may be taken as between two and three times the value 
of the timber standing uncut in the forest. p> jy Hutchins. 
Khandallah, 30th June, 1919. 
