Timber.

The colony abounds in magnificent forests, which have furnished immense quantities of splendid timber, the falling, cutting, and sawing of which have furnished remunerative employment for large numbers of our population. Besides supplying all local requirements, there has been a large export trade, which has steadily increased year by year from £71,000 worth in 1881 to over £181,000 worth in the year 1890; while the total value of the produce of our timber for the last year was roughly £833,000. The Kauri pine of the Auckland provincial district is, perhaps, the most valuable of our timbers, which, however, I must not stop to enumerate.

I shall reserve other information on our vast industries, such as wool, frozen meat, grain, gold, &c., till I come to deal more particularly with the South Island.