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301 NEW ZEALAND FORESTS.

has prepared a voluminous report on the forests of the Colony and the state of the timber trade, which he has forwarded to the Minister of Lands. The report deals with each provincial district separately, but the forests of East Cape and the southern districts of the North Island have yet to be treated of. The following are portions of the report:—

THE SOUTHLAND TIMBER INDUSTRY.

In Southland there are still 312,467 acres of virgin forest out of 345,197 reserved by the Crown. It will thus be seen that the area already denuded by sawmillers is 32,730 acres. There are thirty-six sawmills in operation, employing about 700 men, the average weekly expenditure for wages being 1200l., or about 65,000l. per annum; the total output being estimated at 24,000,000 superficial feet of inch thickness per annum. The Southland timber trade is certainly in a depressed state at this time, caused by over-production, though the rapid development of Southland trade has closed mills in Catlin River, annihilated the coastal timber export of Westland, and greatly restricted that of Marlborough and Nelson. The timber converted in Otago district does not amount to more than one-fourth of the annual output of Southland, so that Southland practically supplies the markets of the southern portion of the Colony from Invercargill to Ashburton with red and white pine, and exports cargoes to Queen Charlotte Sound, the Wairarapa, and the Manawatu. The quantity of timber shipped from Southland ports coastwise during the year ending 31st March, 1885, was 1,659,038 superficial feet; to foreign countries, 1,107,674 feet. There can be no doubt that the foreign trade is capable of considerable expansion. The total area of forest land granted for sawmill leases during the three years ending 30th September, 1885, is 5901 acres, so