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Little improvement has taken place in the timber industry in the northern portion of the Nelson District, or in the Inangahua County, during the year. In the Buller County, however, an improvement is noticeable. In northern Nelson the mills are of small capacity, and the scarcity of timber does not warrant expenditure in- re-establishing plants with modern equipment. Recent hush fires have hastened the extinction of the industry in this portion of the district, about GOO acres of good milling forest on private property and 2,000 acres of State forest having been destroyed. In Buller County the majority of the mills are working continuously, and large quantities of timber are exported therefrom to other districts of the Dominion, especially from Karamea. Nearly all the mills in this county cut timber off Crown lands, royalty being paid at schedule rates. An important consideration in relation to the Crown forests in Buller County is the preservation of areas for mining purposes. The expansion of the coal-mining industry in this portion of the Dominion has induced the Land Board to preserve areas of forest for the supply of timber to the mines. The revenue derived from royalty on timber in this district during the year was £2,850, and, taking last year's revenue for comparison, Nelson District stands third in value of importance in the Dominion in respect to the milling industry, Auckland and Westland taking precedence. Uses to which the different kinds of Trees grown in the State Plantations may be put. The accompanying table "gives an interesting description of the uses to which the timber of the trees now being grown in the State nurseries and plantations may eventually be put. It will be noticed that the number of trees shown as planted—viz., 18,300,779 —does not agree with the a umbers given in the report of Matthews for the past year; but this is accounted for by the fact that the return was made up during last year, and the totals therein given are those growing on the 31st March, 1907, not 1908. Name of Tree. i/'ntecT Vsee for which the different kinds of Trees are suitable.

Acacia melanoxylon Acer saccharum .. ,, pseudo-platanus .Kscuhis bippocastamun Alnus gultinosa Retula alba Castanea sativa .. f !atalpa speciosa .. Cupressus Lawsoniana Eucalypti (species) Fraxinus Americana „ excelsior Juglans cineria nigra re^iu ELnightia ezoelea .. Larix Europaea „ leptolepsis .. Picea excelsa „ sitchensis .. ,, Canadensis .. I'iniis Aiistriaca .. „ Canariensis „ contort a coultei-ii ,, densiflora .. „ excelsa ,, halapensis . . Jeffreyii Lnmbertiana i 45,435 3,625 485,211 2,232 67,518 210,540 15,911 222,575 23,700 2,196,544 1,775 578,175 2,661 1,952 01.424 200 5,275.4(11) 2,860 1,166,998 [53,993 1,400 3,085,926 1,026 1,090 605 2,325 100 66,575 3,693 1,250 Furniture, shop-fittings, pianos, railway purposes, billiardtables, &c. Furniture, shoe-lasts, flooring, and general purposes 'sap is made into sugar). Turnery, furniture, boxes, dairy utensils, blocks and pulleys. ( a I ii net making, sides and bottoms of carts, general turnery. Barrel-staves, boxes, general purposes under ground or under water. Cabinetmaking, turnery, barrel-staves, crates, brooms, &c. Furniture, flooring, interior work, posts, rails, &c. Furniture, posts, sleepers, and telephone-poles. : Flooring, sleepers, fencing, and general lumber. ' Used generally for all constructive works where durability is essential; also for sleepers, posts, wheels, and other purposes where strength is required, telegraph-poles. Boat-oars, eabinetmaking, coachbuilding, agricultural implements, tool-handles, &c. I )itto. Chiefly furniture and pianos, gun-stock*, billiard-table*, clocks. &c. Ditto. Furniture. Railway-sleepers, posts, boat and bridge building, pitprops, and general farm purposes. Ditto. General constructive purposes. Mooring, scaffolding, masts, spars, packing-cases, casks, pit-props, wood-pulp. &c. Ditto. Used generally tor all constructive purposes both inside and outside buildings, packing-cases, butter-boxes, shelving, pattern-making, posts, sleepers. &<■. Ditto. It »» 11 t» j> u »>