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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 69

Timber

Timber.

The timber trade from New Zealand is older than the century, although there is no record of machinery being erected for its manipulation until after the arrival of Captain Hobson. Timber was exported in bulk from the Thames before the end of the last century, but as it was described as different from the Norfolk pines in having the turpentine in the centre of the tree instead of between the bark and the wood, Mr. Cheese-man was led to conclude that the spars shipped by the Fancy, as the vessel was called, were other than those of kauri. The Fancy was the first vessel that is recorded as having taken timber from the Northern Island to India, though that cut from Dusky Bay had previously obtained commendation at Port Jackson.

After Mr. Marsden's time (1814), the timber of the North, handcut by the natives into junk and boards, was common in Sydney. In 1820 the navy sent two store ships to New Zealand to load with spars for topmasts; and after Captain Delöitte—subsequently Lloyd's agent at Port Jackson—came to the Hokianga in 1825, the timber trade between New Zealand and New South Wales expanded into large dimensions.

The published exports of timber reach back to 1853. They are given in five yearly periods, generally in money value:—
1853—1855 £148,373
1856—1860 101,154
1861—1865 91,411
1866—1870 96,742
1871—1875 176,022
1876—1880 226,782
1881—1885 645,135
1886—1889 441,018