to
562
Estimate of Yearly Recurring Outlay.
1. 60 Coolies for 1 month, seed collecting at 6 Coolies for $1 per diem., $ 300.00
2. 60 Coolies for 2 months, digging holes and carrying trees,
3. 6 Permanent Coolies to work in nurseries, 12 months,
4. Purchase of Cocoas and select seeds,
5. Repair of tools and baskets, &c.,
Total Yearly Outlay,
Note.-If convict labour be used, items 2 and 3 may be omitted, reducing
total yearly outlay to
Hongkong, 28th August, 1877.
600.00 360.00 200.00
Copy
150.00
$1,610.00
$650.00
J. M. PRICE,
Surveyor General.
HONGKONG, 15th September, 1877.
SIR. Having learnt from various sources that you have, for some years past, devoted special attention to the propagation and culture of native and foreign trees, I venture to enclose, for your perusal and remarks, a copy of a Report I have submitted to Government on the wooding of the Island, and I would feel extremely obliged by any advice or suggestions which your mature experience and valuable professional knowledge of the subject may enable you to give me.
J. D. HUMPHREYS, Esq.
I have, &c.,
J. M. PRICE,
Surveyor General.
HONGKONG, 1st October, 1877.
SIR,The only point not touched upon in the tree planting Report you were kind enough to send me to read is the economic view of the subject. I have no means of obtaining statistics, and can therefore only throw out crude suggestions which might be worked into form from information collected through the Harbour Master's Office and the timber yards of the Colony.
That tree planting on a large scale will add to the health of the Colony and by so doing decrease the cost of Works and of the Military and Civil Service Establishments-is certain, and, on the principle of a penny saved being two-pence gained, this should probably be a sufficient return for the outlay.
But I see no reason why a large direct revenue could not be derived from timber growing on s large scale as suggested by you. The China fir will grow anywhere. Its wood is valuable for building purposes and is used almost exclusively by the inhabitants of this Island for fuel, being imported in enormous quantities from the neighbouring province of Quangsi at heavy cost for freight.
The value of the China fir imported for building purposes I am unable to guess at, but I should have no hesitation in fixing the value of the imports for firewood at $40,000 annually.
The value of other kinds of timber could probably be approximately arrived at by the enquiries suggested in the first paragraph.
Why should this Colony not grow, for the timber market here, all that it is capable of producing on the waste lands? In the course of ten to twenty years it ought to be able to meet a fair share of the demand for firewood and China fir for building purposes. In from twenty to fifty years it might supply
many of the more valuable kinds of timber so much sought after for furniture and the better purposes for which wood is used. And in a Colony with every natural facility for ship-building and the advantage of cheap skilled labour, an unfailing demand must always exist for all that can be grown on the spot.
That most of the more valuable forest trees will thrive here has been fully established in the public and private gardens of the Colony. Anything more rapid than the growth of the Camphor tree from Formosa and the Iron Bark of Australia I have not seen anywhere, while the Mahogany does almost equally well after it is fairly established. The future revenue derivable from large forests of such trees surrounding a commercial centre would be probably as great as that derived from fifty to a hundred times as large an area in a country less favourably situated.
The Honourable J. M. PRICE,
Surveyor General,
&e.
fc.,
I have, &c.,
J. D. HUMPHREYS.
Appendix B .
Suranyon General
1-14
E
I RECP
C. O.
16038
REGE 15 DOT RO
to por Ford.
8th November 1879.
Dear Mr. Zorde.
with reference to
Your
two short notes about the foresters and
my replies. I should mention that I asked the Governor in
letter to allow
lach
my arrangements
present
resent athan
to continue until the matter
been referred home. received any
but from
had
I have
not
to that letter
come remarks that fell from
stis Excellency
cil I am
last Legislation Coun- led to gather that he would not like the transfer delayed
till then, and no doubt I will be
dully informed to this effect. Pending
W