THE FORESTS OF HONDURAS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 151, 24 March 1876, Page 8

THE FORESTS OF HONDURAS.

++ The report made to Lord Derby on the timber of Honduras by Mr. J. F. Debrot, Vice-Consul at Omoa and Puerto Cortes, confirms statements as to the value of the woods, which have hitherto been regarded with some suspicion. The Vice-Consul gives a long list of woods produced in the country, most of which are, as the shareholders of the Inter-Oceanic Eailway will be glad to hear, admirably adapted for railway sleepers. Thedye-wood fustic is described as nearly imperishable, as superior to oak and a substitute for teak in ship-building, and especially valuable for the knees of ships. There is a tree from the bark of which exudes the gum called dragon's blood, and pitch-pine grows in great abundance. The majority of the forests are owned by the government, though large tracts of land belong to private persons. The extent of tmiberproducing lands is estimated at about five thousand square miles, including a tract on the Atlantic coast, extending fifty miles into the interior, and about five hundred square miles on the Pacific coast. On the Atlantic coast, where the principal forests are, the rainy reason lasts from nine to ten months, while elsewhere it is only six months in duration. In this thinly-populated country, with a rich and virgin soil, the life of the planter is a continual struggle against the encroaching vegetation, cleared patches in the forest sending forth spontaneously a new growth of trees, and the quantity of timber which might be cut in a year, not only without permanent injury, but with benefit to the forests, which in many parts are impenetrable, would be from 20,000,000 to 30,000,000 superficial feet. The annual quantity actually cut is from 7,000,000 to 8,000,000 superficial feet, of which all but 1,000,000 are exported. In the last ten years 45,000,000 superficial feet, more or less, have been shipped, at a value of about ; and of this quantity, one-fifteenth went to the United States and the Continent, the rest to Great Britain. The woods exported comprised about 37,000,000 feet of mahogany, 5,000,000 cedar, 1,000,000 fustic, 1,000,000 Brazil wood, £00,000 rosewood, and 500,000 other woods. Exact statements, however, cannot be obtained, " as the continual revolutions and changes of government prevent compilation." After this it is not surprising to learn from Mr Debrot that the capital employed in cutting ana exporting timber i« very small in companion with

the capacity of production. There are no Acts of the native Legislature on the subject of forests.