WORLD’S FOUR TIMBER CLASSES. 105 
now rule exactly double what they were fifteen years ago for practically 
every class of Kauri timber. Looking through a file of Auckland timber- 
merchants’ price-lists, I see that in fifteen years Kauri has exactly 
doubled in value: thus, in July, 1901, Kauri, first class, 14s. ; July, 
1916, Kauri, first class, 28s.; again, Kauri, medium, July, 1901, 11s. : 
the same Kauri now 22s. 6d. 
Future Kauri Royaury. 
We may take it that Kauri royalty will run 8s! 4d. per 100 sup. ft. 
(ls. per c. ft.) within the next few years. What it will eventually rise 
to is an important point in forestry finance. Within the last fifteen 
years the average price of a tree in South Africa (Stinkwood), like Kauri 
in timber-value, has risen in royalty value from Is, to 2s. per c. ft. : 
similarly Australian Red Cedar. This is the true royalty value proved 
from sales by auction. | 
There is every indication that the market price of Kauri stumpage 
will also advance to a maximum of 2s. per c. ft. (16s. 8d. per 100 sup. ft.) 
in the course of the next eighty to a hundred years, the time when Kauri 
will again be abundant in New Zealand, if the purposeless destruction 
of the Kauri forests be stopped now. The Sydney Bulletin of the 17th 
January, 1918, contains the yearly report of the Kauri Timber Company 
for 1917, showing a profit of £59,108 and a 64-per-cent. dividend. The 
report adds: ‘* At one time the company reckoned its Kauri areas were 
depreciating pretty rapidly, and wrote down their book value year by 
year as the getters put the axe in. But a revaluation disclosed the fact 
that its remaining forest giants were enhanced beyond the value of the 
original properties.’’ 
TIMBER CLASSES. 
The world’s timbers are classified into— 
First-class timbers: Durable softwoods, such as Cedars (Pencil- 
cedar, New Zealand Cedar, American, Australian, Indian, 
African), Teak (which works as a softwood though weighing 
40 lb. to the cubic foot), and Kauri. There is a famine ap- 
proaching in this class of timber. Here also belong certain 
specially useful timbers, such as Blackwood, Ash, and Hickory. 
Second-class timbers: Perishable softwoods—ordinary pine and 
deals. The bulk of the world’s timber used. There will be 
comparative scarcity but never famine in this class. 
Third-class timbers: Durable hardwoods useful for special pur- 
poses, such as railway-sleepers, bridge-work, and house-beams. 
Really durable hardwoods are probably as scarce as durable 
softwoods. 
Fourth-class timbers: Perishable hardwoods. Tropical forests are 
full of this class. It has no value at present except for 
trifling supplies of fancy woods. It may be the world’s fuel- 
supply when the coal-supplies are worked out. (Vide ‘‘ A One- 
sided Fuel-supply,’’ Part II.) 
The world’s first-class timbers can be counted on one’s fingers. Each 
country that has them in its forests will, with certain exceptions, want 
every scrap of them in the future. Tasmania might export Blackwood, 
but it would require a revolution in present Government methods to 
put the forests in order to do so. India has preserved its supplies of 
Teak, but not increased them, as the Dutch have done in Java. I can 
