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AITKINDIA (J. SELECTED LETTERS ON MATTERS CONNECTED WITH THE INQUIRY OF THE COMMISSION. No. Writer. No. Writer. 1. Rev. J. H. Simmonds. 14. Joseph Butler, Esq. 2. 0. A. Cotton, M.A., Lecturer on Geology, Victoria j 15. W. L. C. Williams, Esq. College. ; 16. J. H. Davison, Esq. 3. A. E. Thornton, Esq., Dairy-produce Grader. ! 17. Ronald Opie, Esq. 4. Tasman Smith, Esq. ; 18. „ 5. Sub-committee, Forestry Commission. 19. Bernard Chambers, Esq. 6. Chief Health Officer. 20. A. E. Haskell, Esq. 7. D. Allman Marchant, Esq. 21. W. Quinn, Esq. 8. W. L. C. Williams, Esq. i 22. Orton Bradley, Esq. 9. Secretary for Agriculture. 23. W. M. Cottrell, Esq. 10. W. T. Morrison, Esq. • j 24. M. Murphy, Esq. 11. Duncan Rutherford, Esq. ' 25. West Coast Timber-trading Company. 12. J. C. Malfroy and Co. ' 26. Greymouth Wharf Labourers. 13. R: Maris Clark, Esq. 27. A. H. Cockayne. Esq.

No. 1. Timber Eucalypts in New Zealand. [By Rev. J. H. Simmonds, Wesley Training College, Auckland.] The value of eucalyptus timber is so well known to our engineers, architects, wheelwrights, and farmers that there is no need to spend words in proving it here. We are simply in the position of having some of our vital industries dependent upon the forests of Australia ; and any one who has travelled in that country with his mind advertent to the timber problem knows that the best we can hope for in looking to the original sources of supply is that we shall in the near future have to accept inferior grades of timber at indefinitely advancing prices. If we are to meet the situation in a permanently satisfactory manner it must be by establishing hardwood forests in our own country. Of the eighty to ninety timber-yielding species of eucalyptus growing in Australia and Tasmania, it is certain that a considerable number can be successfully grown over a wide range in New Zealand. There are others that will probably be restricted to warm districts a little inland from our northern coasts. If some still remain that can never find a congenial home anywhere in this country, we can do without them. Our policy should be to use the experience already gained in planting extensively the best of those that have done well with us, while we persistently experiment, on a smaller scale and in various localities, with the most promising of the others. The eucalypt most widely known in New Zealand is the blue-gum (E. globulus). It grows quickly to a large size in many parts of both Islands. In some localities it has failed badly, but its range of healthy and vigorous life still entitles it to a place in the first rank of hardy exotics. Blue-gum saplings, like most other saplings, are soft and perishable ; but the esteem in which the timber of this species is held in Tasmania and Victoria suggests that when our own mature trees are properly milled and seasoned they will yield a very valuable hardwood. For durability in contact with soil or water, Baron F. yon Mueller gives the wood of E. globulus a medium position between the white-gums and the stringy-barks on the one hand and the red-gums and ironbarks on the other. For joists, studs, rafters, and heavy scantling in house-building he says it is one of the best. He further speaks approvingly of its use in ship-building, in carriage and implement manufacture, for telegraph-poles, for bridge-planking, and for railway-sleepers when the timber of E. rostrata was not available. In California, where eucalyptus-growing is being carried out systematically on a large scale, it is E. globulus that is most in favour for general planting, the opinion of experts there being that the timber is excellent for a wide range of purposes. Popular prejudice has had much to say against bluegum,, just as it has had much to say against Pinus insignis ; but it seems certain now that these two familiar trees are both destined to hold an important place in our future forestry. In various parts of the Dominion may be seen tall and stately eucalypts with the bark on upper stem and branches smooth and white and the flowers usually in threes. They are known to botanists under the specific name of viminalis. Some idea of their rate of growth and ultimate size will be gained when it is mentioned that a treeBhirty-two years old was found by the writer to have a girth of 10 ft. 4 in. and a height of 100 ft. The timber of this eucalypt is not one of those with a reputation for great durability in contact with the ground, but from the account of it given in Mueller's " Eucalyptographia " it seems safe to infer that when sawn into boards and scantling for use in dry situations it will be found compact, durable, and not liable to warp. Visitors to Rotorua may see a splendid group of E. viminalis trees close to the railway-station. Older single specimens of a particularly beautiful strain may be seen in the grounds of Mr. R. C. Allen as the Thames train passes the Piako Station near Morrinsville. Mr. T. W. Adams could tell us that the species is equally at home in his forest plantations at Greendale, on the Canterbury Plains. Its celerity of growth, its hardiness in a wide range of situations, the great bulk of its timber yield, and its beauty entitle E. viminalis to favourable consideration and thorough trial. In the Waikato there has been made an especially Valuable discovery in eucalyptus-growing. Just thirty-eight years ago last spring the late Mr, John Reynolds, on the recommendation of an Australian bushman, imported several small parcels of eucalyptus-seeds from Sydney, and sowed them infrows onfcultivated ? ground|aty Trecarne," Cambridge. The scientificBiames of the several species were not known at the time, but have since been ascertained. The two that have made the vii—C. 12.