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therefore, from Canton had been brought to a close. H. M. Government had also stopped the emigration from Hong Kong for several reasons, but principally to avoid giving offence to the Chinese authorities. Many questioned the policy of that step, unless the emigration from Macao could be stopped also. There were no abuses of the emigration from Hong Kong-everything there connected with the government was well in hand at the time, and the closing of emigration from Hong Kong was, of course, a handing over to the iniquitous kidnappers at Macao of the control of the so-called emigration. It was as it were removing a policestation from the vicinity of criminals, and allowing to the latter complete freedom of action. He hoped, nevertheless, that a wellregulated system of emigration from China to the West Indies might soon be established, for although, possibly, we might get on well enough without Chinese in Australia, he nevertheless believed that no labour was so valuable in the West Indies as that which could be supplied by the Chinese-a race which combined the intelligence and strength of the European with the negro's power to resist climatic influences in tropical countries.

An Ordinary General Meeting of the Institute was held in the theatre of the Society of Arts on Tuesday, the 1st April, 1873, his Grace, the Duke of MANCHESTER, President, in the chair.

The following Papers, by HUGH MUNRO HULL, Esq., Clerk of the Parliament, Tasmania, on "Tasmania, and its Wealth in Timber," and J. E. CALDER, Esq., of Tasmania, on "The Forests of Tasmania," were read.

ON TASMANIA AND ITS WEALTH IN TIMBER.

Tasman discovered the island on November 24, and landed thereon on December 1, 1642, and it was visited by Captain Cook on March 10, 1773. The first British settlement was formed by Lieutenant Bowen, from Sydney, in 1803, and when the party was nearly starved to death, a permanent establishment was formed under Governor Collins in February, 1804. For many years the infant settlement suffered severely from the want of provisions; flour could only be obtained at £112 per ton in 1804. In 1808 the free settlers had to get rations from the king's stores, and to wear the prison clothing, and though there were a thousand souls. then to maintain, there was no meat, or wheat, or maize, or barley, and for a portion of the year 1808 rice and kangaroo meat was the daily food of all classes. Notwithstanding these troubles the Colony still went on improving, and in 1810 the people from Norfolk Island were all removed to Tasmania, by which 1,100 more settlers were added to the number. In 1816 immigrants began to arrive from England. The Commissariat Department, under the writer's father, D. A. C. G. Hull, was established in Hobart Town; and still, though 7,000 black aboriginal inhabitants roved through the island, and escaped convicts or bushrangers were troublesome, the British pluck of the settlers kept them up, and the colony rapidly "went ahead." "went ahead." When the settlement was thirty-two years old, the neighbouring Colony of Victoria, then called Port Philip, was mainly aided in its successful settlement by farmers and sheep from us, for in two years there left us sheep to the value of £160,000, for the extensive pastures of the new country; and their owners found those pastures pay so well, that in seven years Tasmania had transferred more than half a million

in value of her sheep, and a large number of her most energetic farmers and young men to the plains of Victoria. In 1851 gold was largely discovered in Victoria, and 35,000 of the "bone and sinew" of Tasmania went over the straits to dig, and in very many instances to find and bring back gold. I know that in December, 1853, our banks held £1,340,000 of gold and bullion in their coffers, and this year, 1853, was the culminating point of our success as a Colony-our jubilee year, in fact. In that year the British Government ceased to transport their poachers, and machinebreakers, and chartists, and petty larcenists, as convicts to Tasmania, by which the labour-market was confined to the emigrant class; and, in consequence, a much larger amount was required to be expended in wages, so that the farmers and other employers of labour could not realise the same profit from their various industries as when they had cheap labour, even though that labour was, in a few instances, inferior. Yet the tone of the Colony has greatly improved since that time, large numbers of friendly societies have been formed, having temperance as one of their principal objects; churches have been built in numbers, schools and education greatly attended to, and, to sum up all in as few words as possible, it may be remarked that now, at Christmas-time, 1872, there are in the colony of Tasmania 18,000 heads of families, whose united property is valued at £11,000,000, with an anual valuation of £669,615. They possess 1,400,000 sheep, 101,000 head of cattle, 22,000 horses, 50,000 pigs, which together are valued at £1,470,000. They have 330,000 acres in cultivation, and exported last year home produce to the value of £790,000. They have £670,000 deposited in the banks, and £220,000 in the two savings banks. Their shipping and steamers are valued at £300,000. They have constructed a railway of forty-five miles long for £510,000, and have contracted to build another 111 miles long for £650,000, all showing a very healthy state of affairs; and the Colonists look to 1873, when they shall have been colonised three score years and ten, as a year of happiness and general prosperity. But now for the forests. Of the timber trees there are about thirty varieties, some of which grow to a size which is almost incredible to those who have not seen them. Three of the species of eucalypti grow to large proportions; in some instances to 300 feet high, with a girth of 102 feet. Of these timbers very large planks can be obtained, sometimes three and four feet wide to 140 feet in length, without a flaw. The specific gravity of the gum wood, as it is called, is greater than that of the oak, or the teak of India, and its weight per cubic foot much greater. Its strength is so great that a lath seven feet long

and two inches square will maintain a weight of 1,300 pounds. Of the blue gum tree there is one growing in a valley about five miles from Hobart Town, on Mr. Hull's estate of Tolosa, which is estimated to be 330 feet high, and has been measured by Sir W. Denison, K.C.B., and found to be seventy-six feet in circumference. At the Cam river on the north is a stringy bark tree, 200 feet to the first branch, and estimated to contain 225 tons of timber. In D'Entrecasteaux's Channel a "swamp gum" was cut down and split into palings, laths, and shingles for house purposes, and its produce was sold for £245. For many years there was a large export of sawn timber and split timbers of all sorts-in some years to the value of nearly £400,000. These are the larger and coarser timbers. Then there are the myrtle, blackwood, musk, dogwood, honeysuckle, pine, and sassafras, all of them cabinet woods of various colours and textures, and all producing the most beautifully-marked veneers for cabinet-makers' work. Of blackwood, large quantities are exported for furniture purposes to Victoria, where it is extensively used for billiard-tables and large furniture. The myrtle slabs of thirty or forty feet in length and three or four feet wide, of a bright salmon or pink colour, make very beautiful cabinet work. The roots of this tree are veined in a variety of figures. The musk, Huon pine, and honeysuckle make handsome pictureframes, and all take an excellent polish, These ornamental woods excited great notice at the various exhibitions in England, of 1851 and 1862, and in France. The ship timbers produced by the gumtrees, such as "knees" and other tough parts required in shipbuilding, have been found to be durable, and not susceptible to dry rot. Well-authenticated instances of great durability in old piles and posts are of every-day occurrence; and scaffolding poles of great length have been in use for twenty years and more by builders in the city, and they are as firm and tough as when first used. The mode adopted by the small settlers for clearing the richest forest lands is somewhat as follows:-Say that there are from seventy to eighty trees to the acre, some of them of enormous size; some of these are cut down, and in their fall they break down many others, the thick foliage soon dries, and being full of gaseous matter (10,000 cubic feet of gas to the ton), a fire-stick being applied to it, a grand and extensive blaze is the result; the branches are consumed in a few hours, but the trunks continue burning for some days, till a mass of ashes is all that remains. In these ashes, after the first rainfall, the settler plants potatoes, or sows his grain; and the crop produced is frequently enormous. Instances of fifteen tons of potatoes, or one hundred bushels of oats from one acre are not

few; while the green crops tower high above the head of the man who cuts them for his cattle; and it is in these ashes that turnips of sixty or seventy pounds weight are produced. Then, where are these forests and this fine timber to be found? In the north, in the south, and in the west of Tasmania. First, South.-Near the Huon River, for mile upon mile, he who visits that part of the country can see nothing but forests in every direction; a grand river the Huon, ever flowing; navigable for forty miles from the sea; mountain streams of great purity and force for mill or irrigating purposes; and everything but roads and population available for producing wealth. The township of Hull has its few settlers, who are growing hops in its rich valleys, and opening up the country of Sheoak Hills for cultivation. Next, North.-All along the north-east coast, in the counties of Devon, Wellington, and Dorset, are myrtle forests, and blackwood, stringy bark, &c., in great beauty and of enormous size. Every four or five miles rivers run into the sea from the hills and valleys where these grand timbers grow, and from the ports of which large exports are made to Victoria, New Zealand, South Australia, Queensland, and Sydney; giving employment to steam saw-mills, to lumberers in numbers; and to a fleet of small vessels in the trade; and here also are gold and iron found. Then, West.-The whole of the western coast of Tasmania may be said to be one vast forest, virgin to the hand of man for miles upon miles. Here and there, such as in Port Davey (a large harbour), and Macquarie Harbour (a very extensive inlet), sawyers and timber-men have made their stations, and bring to market huge logs of Huon pine, myrtle, and blackwood.

As civilisation and population extend westward these forests will gradually disappear by fire, and in place of huge trees we shall have cultivated farms and sheep runs; but this may not be for years.

Beneath these forest trees, limestone, marble, granite, coal, gold bearing quartz, and other minerals are found.

In the centre of the island there are few forests of good timber, though in many parts trees grow to a large size; and here and there much too thickly to allow of cultivation; but they disappear as man comes with his axe and firestick.

In those parts of the Colony which have been cultivated for many years, the timber trees are not as a rule abundant. The vast plains of the interior are thinly clad with Mimosas, or white gum trees, or she oak, &c. The white gum produces, by the aid of a small black and white insect, the manna of the Colony, a white

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