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The heap is kindled by an opening made at the top, and others near the base; after burning for three or four days these are closed, and other holes are made in the sides about half-way between the base and the apex. The holes must be closed whenever it is seen that combustion is too rapid, and care must be taken to fill up any depression that may arise from this cause. When smoke ceases to be given off all the holes are closely stopped, and the heap is allowed to cool for three or four days, when the cover is removed and any charcoal that may still be in a burning condition is extinguished by water. In many places the site of the mound is formed into a funnel-shapad depression with a hole in the centre, which communicates with a ditch dug on the outside to enable the tarry matters to be drained off. Charcoal intended to be used in the manufacture of the finer kinds of gunpowder is subjected to combustion in large iron retorts furnished with refrigerating condensers, by which means nearly the whole of the volatile products can be readily obtained. Woodware. It may be admitted that manufactured articles can scarcely be included under “Neglected Forest Products,” without using the phrase in a very elastic manner; but before closing this short series of papers, I may be permitted to refer to the importation of certain kinds of woodware requiring a very limited expenditure of labour, and that of a very simple character, such as rolling-pins, washing-boards, clothes pegs, tubs, buckets, pails, etc., etc. It is to say the least a singular anomaly that simple articles of this kind are imported from the United States of North America and other countries to the amount of £10,000 per annnm, while material that could be utilized in their manufacture is burnt in enormous quantities, or allowed to rot on the ground, and our artizans are unable to obtain employment. Tawa, one of our most common timbers, is specially adapted for the manufacture of all the articles named; for the smaller kinds, such as clothes pegs and rolling-pins, it can be procured in almost unlimited quantity at little more than the actual cost of carriage. There must be something radically wrong when simple manufactured goods of this kind, weighted as they are with heavy charges for freight and import duties, can be placed on the New Zealand markets in the face of the unlimited supply of raw material at our command. The cause of this anomalous condition of matters cannot be discussed here, but I may allude to it in order that the attention of settlers may be drawn to the subject. In country districts intervals of wet weather might often be profitably utilized in manufacturing the simpler kinds of woodware. In most cases

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