C—l 2.

4

[jf. OOLUNS.

15. Taking Forest Hill on this list here : it gives an area of 4,000 acres, and 12,000,000 superficial feet of rimu, 4,000,000 of kahikatea, 1,000,000 of matai, 1,600,000 of miro, 100,000 of totara, making 19,000,000 in all. Has that area been accurately measured? —No, it is just approximate. 16. How did you arrive at the quantities of timber in each?—lt is just a rough estimate only. There would not be double the quantity in it. It is only a guess from what I have seen of the bush alongside. 17. Have you been in the National Park? —Very little, and not far into it. 18. So that the classification there again must be purely a guess?— Yes, and a very rough guess. lam sure there will be more timber there than we have estimated. 19. That only works out to 200 ft. an acre?— Yes. 20. Do you know the Mokoreta Block? —Yes. 21. Is that all bush —15,000 acres?—No; there is a good deal of scrub. About 2,000 acres would be milling-bush. 22. What would it run to the acre? —About 3,000 ft. 23. Then the figures given in this schedule, 392,000 ft., are quite wrong?— That has Been copied from some old return made out before I joined the Department, and never checked since. 24. Have you been to Stewart Island? —Yes; it is very poor milling country. There are three mills there, milling from 3,000 ft. to 4,000 ft. to the acre, chiefly red-pine and miro; very little kahikatea, and no matai. 25. Is there much birch?— There is very little, if any. 26. What is the number of mills in operation in Southland?— About sixty. 27. What is the average number of hands employed? —About eighteen. 28. Is there much export of timber out of New Zealand from here now?— Not much. 29. Do you consider the regulations under the Land Act a satisfactory mode of dealing with the timber? —Yes. 30. When the trees are measured and counted are they branded?—No, because we do not measure everything. 31. What proportion of trees in a 200-acre block would you measure?— Probably 7 or 8 acres. We might take half a chain all the way round where we would measure the timber accurately, and then multiply the whole area by it. 32. Would a bush of that sort be fairly even throughout the whole block? —In nineteen cases out of twenty that would give a very fair average. 33. In the method you use for getting the average per acre do you make any allowance for waste?—No; that method accounts for the whole quantity with the exception of totara. If it is a very bad sample of totara we sometimes deduct 10 or 15 per cent. The same with birch, which is very faulty. 34. Mr. Murdoch.] Do you allow for the bark?—No, the only allowance we make is the onethird of the diameter, which makes up for all waste. 35. The Chairman.] At what height from the ground would you measure the butt diameter? —2 ft. 6 in. The average of that tree would be 9 in. or 10 in. If it measured 10 in. it would be picked for milling and the tree would be measured up. 36. Is there any check when they do cut it? —The butt is there, and you can check it. 37. Do the sawmillers hold the reserves for excessive periods, or do they work them continuously? —They have held them much longer than they should in some instances. Under the old Act of 1885 and the 'State Forests Act there was no limit, and consequently the New Zealand Pine Company and several others who took up bush at that time hold it still, practically. 38. There is no provision for making them cut it? —It is all provided for now, and the millers here have come under this new regulation. They must have it cut out in twenty-one years now. 39. Dr. Cockayne.] I see in this list the term " tawai " is used : what is meant? —Birch. 40. Do you include one species of tree, or more, in that term? —We only include the one species of birch. There are four or five. 41. Do you include all the four or five as " birch " ?—Yes, but only red-birch and brown-birch are milled. 42. Is kamahi milled in Southland? —No. 43. It is not included in this schedule, and yet it forms a large proportion of certain forests? —Quite right. 44. Both the Fagus Menziesii and the Fagus fusca are fit to be valued for milling purposes? —Yes. 45. What is miro sold for? —It is classified as red-pine and sold as such. 46. Do you know pokaka?—Yes. 46a. Is that milled? —I have seen it cut for a tramway. 47. What do they sell it as? —I have never known it sold as a timber. 48. Mr. Murdoch.] You think the figures given in this return are not very reliable as to the quantity of timber available in Southland? —I think it is all underestimated. 49. Mr. Clarke.] You have probably taken care that it should be underestimated? —Yes. 50. Why? —When a man is asked for an estimate, and it is a rough one, it is much safer to underestimate than to overestimate. 51. Practically, Stewart Island cannot be taken into account as a milling-bush? —There are mills working there now, and will be for some time. 52. Dr. Cockayne.] Could a mill be profitably established in the neighbourhood of Port William?— Yes.