and as what is right for one shipowner is right for all shipownerstherefore, railway companies, when shipowners, should in respect to the sea be also free from liability. When shipowners then are not liable, brokers or agents, acting for owners of traffic, should not be liable either, this being the position of railway companies, forwarding traffic by sea at through rates; there being in addition an independent reason why such railway companies should not be liable, because when in their capacity of agents or shipbrokers, they forward traffic at through rates, they voluntarily, and for the convenience of the public perform more service and receive less payment than had they taken it otherwise. It is apparent that a voluntary agent's unpaid services should not involve him in heavier responsibilities.

OUR COLONIES.-No. V.

H

THE TIMBERS OF OUR INDIAN POSSESSIONS AND AUSTRALASIA. AVING shown, in a former article, the value of the woods of our Possessions in the Western Continent and islands and Africa, the facts and observations we have now to furnish will serve to further demonstrate that England is principally indebted to its Colonies and Indian Empire for timbers of construction.

It is from India that we receive the valuable shipbuilding wood teak, of which our supplies were very short for some years, although the imports have, within the last year or two, been somewhat larger. So far back as 1839, Mr. Williams, dockyard manager, reported to the Bombay Government that in twenty-one months 40,000 teak trees, between twelve inches and six inches diameter, had been floated down by the contractors, who were allowed to cut trees indiscriminately, and that the supply of larger timber fit for shipbuilding was very scanty.

In 1873 we imported from Bengal and Burmah, 41,467 loads of teak, valued at £547,819. In the year ending March 31, 1872, the teak shipped from British India amounted to 42,459 loads or tons. The quantity, however, varies considerably year by year.

In India, the Government has lately begun to look after her valuable forests, but not until most of the teak and sal districts had become unproductive from reckless cutting. These two timbers, which, with oak and two others, rank No. 1 at Lloyd's for shipbuilding, are only found in our Indian Possessions, and an idea may be formed of the importance of forest conservation from the facts put forward in the report of Dr.

Brandis, Inspector-General of Forests in India, that the average of firstclass teak trees found in a normal uncut forest at Beeling was fourteen per acre, while, over the entire area of Government teak forests, lately taken into management at Moulmein, 552 square miles in extent, the first class trees that were standing numbered only fifteen in ten acres, while stumps and damaged trees everywhere abound.

In Burmah the best teak-growing districts are Pegu, on the Irrawaddy and Sitang rivers, and in the Thoungyen valley, comprising 7,312 square miles of forest. Tenasserim and Martaban include 520 square miles of jungle on the Salween river banks. But even these forests are poor compared with the extensive tracts covered with teak to the north of the British boundary, especially on the feeders of the Sitang and Salween rivers, and some of the tributaries of the Meinam or Bankok river. The trees also are, as a rule, much larger, and the shape of the stem more regular, in the forests of the Burmese Empire, the Siamese Kingdom, and the Karennee country. The tallest teak tree measured in Pegu was 106 feet high to the first branch. The strength and density of teak timber vary exceedingly, according to the locality where the tree is grown. The extremes observed in preliminary experiments were 40 and 50 lbs. per cubic foot, and 190 lbs. to 289 lbs. breaking weight. Teak when young grows very rapidly. Trees ten years old have usually a girth of eighteen inches, measured at six feet from the ground; at twenty-two years a girth of three feet is attained, but full-grown trees of nine feet in girth cannot be supposed to be less than 160 years old.

The forests of Pegu are divided into six divisions of over 1,000 square miles each, containing approximatively 100,000 first class trees in each division. The second, third, and fourth class trees each take twenty-four years to become first, second, and third class, respectively. Therefore, in each division, if one quarter of the 100,000 first class trees be cut every sixth year, taking the six divisions in rotation at 25,000 trees yearly from the divisions worked, the forest will have yielded all its mature timber in the twenty-four years required to bring on a fresh supply. In practice, 200,000 trees only are cut; some old trees being left for seed. It has been discovered by careful survey that the teak forests, though of a very scattered character, contain a certain quantity of trees of each class, generally 1,000 of first, second, and third each, and 200 of fourth class trees per square mile. Therefore, by cutting only eighty of the first class, and leaving twenty for seed bearers, as well as all the younger trees, which are protected from fires, as much as possible, in twenty-four years the forest is renewed, and in a rotation of 120 years, or the age of a first class tree, the stock is entirely replenished. Great quantities of teak are used on the western coast of the Indian Peninsula for shipbuilding. The Malabar teak is by common consent ranked higher for naval purposes than

Tenasserim or Pegu timber. The cause of its greater durability and power of resisting dry rot, appears to depend chiefly on its more oily or resinous quality, and the greater density arising from its slow growth on the sides of hills. The principal forest districts are those of Malabar, Canara, Travancore, and Goojerat on the western coast of the Peninsula of Hindostan.

In Central India, on the Nerbudda river, extensive sal or saul forests begin to take the place of teak, which does not occur further north than Jhansie. Along the whole sub-Himalayan range, up to 3,000 feet elevation, and in a belt ranging from five to twenty miles wide, at the foot of the hills, and over 1,500 miles long, dense forest is found. Wherever the soil is elevated and dry this is nearly pure sal forest. In Kumaon, Oude, and many other of the Nepal jungles, as many as seventy first class trees per acre have been found, besides young trees from seed, at 200 or 300 per acre, growing up with the old. Some idea may be formed of the sal trees growing in the Nepal hills from the fact that the ferry-boats used everywhere on the Gogra and other branches of the Ganges are formed of single logs hollowed out and floated down from Nepal, one of which holds ten to fifteen men with cattle and horses, costing £5 to £10 purchased from the Nepal boatmakers. The sal forests of Upper India might be shown (according to the report of Mr. Webber, of the Indian Forest Department) to be even in worse plight through reckless cutting and utter neglect. There were in 1830 probably 4,000 square miles of purely sal forests along the foot of the Himalayas, besides those in Central India, available to Government. The sal timber (Shorea robusta) is almost the only one found capable of standing the Indian climate for railway uses, yet now the East Indian railway has been obliged to import pine sleepers from Norway, sal being scarcely procurable. This wood is close grained and heavy, but does not appear to be very durable, and on that account is inferior to teak, but in strength it surpasses the latter and deserves to be considered the second best timber tree in India. The British sal forests may roughly be computed as follows:

Both sal and teak trees take 100 years to grow. There are some excellent coniferous woods found in the British hill provinces of Kumaon and Gurhwal and the Punjab Himalayas. The deodar (Cedrus deodora)

is found there of immense age and size, 40 feet girth and 250 feet high; its timber is nearly imperishable. The Pinus longifolia is the next tree of value in the Himalayas, as it occurs over all the lower hills covering an area of several thousand square miles. Its timber is equal to Norway pine, and it is proposed to use it for sleepers on the Indian railways, and experiments as to its lasting qualities, when impregnated with creosote, have been successful.

There is a splendid tree in Burmah which is called there pyimma, and in Bengal red jarrool, which is abundant throughout British Burmah, and found in Travancore and other parts. The wood is used more extensively than any other except teak for the fittings of boats, and sometimes for the hulls of canoes, and in Rangoon for the knees of ships; large quantities are also now employed for ordnance purposes.

The podack, or rosewood of the Tenasserim provinces is a very beautiful, hard, compact timber, closely resembling the Andaman wood. We pass over CEYLON, which, although well timbered, and rich in some ornamental and fancy woods, exports but little timber.

The Colony of the STRAITS' SETTLEMENTS is very rich in wood. Singapore sent to the last Paris Exhibition seventy-one specimens of unnamed timbers from the Johore saw mills, and the island of Penang forty specimens.

Malacca and the Malay Peninsula also possess many useful woods, and some four or five command a market, at very high prices, for Madras. They are strong, solid, and very durable, being principally used for girders, rafters, joists, and timber for bridges, standing the sudden changes of the climate remarkably well. One, the marabow, is also used for furniture; it is not subject to dry rot, and, when well seasoned, is known to last nearly half a century. A wood called boonoot, which is tough, hard, crooked grained, and fibrous, is in general use for masts and spars of vessels.

Passing now to the great island continent of AUSTRALIA, and its adjacent islands of Tasmania and New Zealand, we find them enormously rich in valuable woods, suited for many purposes. The immense size of many of the Australian trees is a great element in their value. The want of large timber for shipbuilding and some other purposes is severely felt at the present time. Several of the northern Australian woods are admirably adapted for naval purposes, furnishing, among other things, some of the largest and toughest spars in the world.

Owing to the vast area of Queensland, and the diversity of its soil, climate, and altitude, there is a greater variety of indigenous trees than in the rest of the Australian Colonies, and, perhaps, more than can be found within a similar extent of country in any other part of the world. The value of several descriptions of the Australian eucalypti for building

or railway purposes, has for some time past been fully recognised, and the number of species is stated to be greater in Queensland than in other parts of the continent. The case is the same with other woods, the variety of which is very great, that are remarkable for their strength, durability, fineness of grain, or ornamental appearance. In the neighbourhood of Rockhampton alone, there are nearly 200 different species of woods available for every purpose, from cabinet work to shipbuilding, several of which, as the eucalypts, or gums, surpass all other known timber in strength and durability, and as these constitute the main bulk of vegetation in the open forest, the supply is inexhaustible. It is impossible to state at the present period the price for which all the Queensland timbers can be placed in the market. The cost, free on board ship, is not great, as most of the valuable woods grow on the coast or the banks of the rivers, or are found within reach of the facilities for transport provided by railway communication. A few of the principal timber trees of Queensland may be specified, especially the coniferous

The majestic Moreton Bay pine is, without exception, the most useful and ornamental. It covers immense tracts of land along the coast and in the interior, and overtops all other trees, whether growing on the alluvial banks near rivers, or upon the steep and rugged mountains in the interior. This timber is an article of great commercial importance, and is used extensively in the Colony. It is strong and durable if kept dry. When procured from the mountains in the interior, it is fine grained, and susceptible of a high polish, which excels that of satin-wood or bird's-eye maple. Some trees yield as much as 10,000 feet of saleable timber. Spars for ships may be obtained in any quantity from 80 to 100 feet in length; in some instances, the tree attains a height of, at least, 150 feet, and from four to five feet in diameter.

The Flindersias are fine large trees of very general occurrence in the bush forests on the banks of the rivers in the northern districts, attaining a height of upwards of 100 feet; stem, 24 to 30 inches in diameter. There are several species, one with a dark yellow wood is of great beauty and suitable for the finest cabinet-work. They are, botanically speaking, true cedars-that is, having characters in common with the red cedar ; the timber of which is an article of great commercial importance, and extensively exported to other colonies.

The wood of the cypress pine is durable, fine grained, fragrant, and capable of a high polish. It is used for piles of wharves and for sheathing punts and boats, as it resists the attacks of white ants. The root is valued by cabinetmakers for veneering purposes. The cypress pine is now receiving the attention it deserves from the timber merchant.

The iron-bark eucalyptus supplies timber of the highest reputation