great cheapness, for it can be sold in the English market at the low price of or 4<7. per pound. A quantity of it has been sold in Leeds for the purpose of manufacture, but it does not appear that the French processes have as yet been equalled in England. It is impossible to take up a New Zealand mat of the finer sort without being struck by its silky gloss, its soft and pliant texture, and its strength, which would defy the efforts of several men to tear it asunder. This article, then, seems calculated to form a close commercial tie between New Zealand and the general markets of Europe. Skill and experience in the preparation and packing of the New Zealand hemp have not yet been acquired; and much of it that has been sent to England has been more or less damaged, from not being sufficiently dried before shipment; nor has the best season for cutting it been ascertained. The process of tanning has been proposed with a view to remedy its only defect, which is, a liability to break in the knot. On the whole, the phormium tenax presents a fertile subject for the consideration of the in genious, the industrious, and the speculative. TIMBER. The forests of New Zealand present an abundance of materials literally inexhaustible for the purposes of the builder, the shipwright, and the cabinet-maker. Upwards of sixty kinds of more or less valuable timber have been sent to England as specimens ; and doubtless in the im penetrable recesses of these forests there are many trees whose existence is unknown to the botanist. In illustra tion of this remark, I will mention, that a missionary
