70 



the pudding." Very few New Guinea timbers have timbers showed that the differences between them were 

 been tried, and the criterion for them has been very slight; the charcoal tests turned out as shown in the 



different from that of more developed countries. In 

 New Guinea, what is looked for is a durable wood. 

 Buildings which should be permanent are built of 

 wood, and the owner naturally tries to find wood which 

 will last as long as possible. Timbers that do not last 

 are condemned as wholly bad, when, in reality, some- 

 times their only defect is to be less durable than others 

 in a particularly bad climate for preserving wood. So 

 Ave see ilimo condemned, and melila or kwila placed 

 perhaps on a pinnacle it does not wholly deserve. 

 While the positions would not be reversed were those 

 two timbers to reach a market in a land where stone 

 and steel are used for permanent works, and wood is 

 only used in protected places under buildings and for 

 ornamental and special uses, in such a market ilimo 

 would, however, probably be as sought after as melila. 

 As a forerunner of testing timber by use, mechanical 

 tests are of great value. These consist of tests of the 

 strength of the wood in all directions, its hardness, its 



• • 



33.8 per cent, of charcoal 

 21.0 per cent, of charcoal 



27.9 per cent, of charcoal 

 24.2 per cent, of charcoal 



following table: — 



Afzelia 



Pometia 

 Calophyllum 



Octomeles 



which are exactly what one could expect. 



Mr. Mann's paper contains much valuable informa- 

 tion, and his charts, diagrams, and photographs of 

 fractures are most interesting. On page 36, he writes — 



" Papua contains a great variety of timber trees, 

 the wood from which is of economic value; it is 

 therefore essential that a botanical survey be 



undertaken, and a 



thorough 



investigation be 



combustibility, its 



working qualities. 



Of the New 



Guinea timbers, only six have been tested,* and these 



were — 



Ulabo . . 



Alaga 



Ta mo na u 



Madave 



Ilimo 

 Kokoilo. . 



t * 



• • 



Afzelia bijuga 



Pometia pinna ta 

 Tndt. 



Indt. 



Octomeles sumatrana 



Calophyllum iuophyllum 



Possiblv 



My. No. 10 



5 

 137 



entered upon in order to prove their usefulness for 

 the great variety of purposes to which timber is 

 applied.' 7 



I am in thorough agreement with Mr. Mann, and 

 if the botanical work had only been persevered with, 

 and the testing continued in the able way it had been 

 begun, we should to-day be in a position to speak with 

 authority about the physical characteristics of Papuan 

 timbers. 



»» 



»» 



Native Names in Papua. 



34 



209 



A great confusion exists regarding the native names 



n - , iir i t i °f trees. The verv large number of languages spoken 



Ut the six, one— Madave— I have not traced This is in New Guinea, combined with the enormous number 



an Eastern Division native 



name, 

 visited the forests of that part of Papua, 

 gives its Vailala synonym as 

 find the tree there. I 



and I have not 



Burnett f 

 Oma," but I failed to 



am a little doubtful about 

 Tamonau being identical with my No. 137. In the 

 absence of descriptions, it is quite impossible to be sure 

 of any tree. The native names tend rather to confuse 

 than to help. Mr. Mann carried out various exhaustive 



tests, and found that the weights of 

 11-12 per cent, moisture were — 



A. Afzelia bijuga 



P. Pometia pinnafa 



0. Calopht/llum inophy/hnn 



1). Octomeles sumatrana . . 



In bending, melila turned ont to be the best wood; 

 then came Calophyllum inop/ii/llum, then okamu, while 

 ilimo was at the bottom of the list. Here is a summary 

 of the tests — 



• • 



of trees that are to be found, makes it very difficult to 

 use the native names of trees as a means of identifica- 

 tion. To a sojourner like myself, the muddle appears to 

 be hopeless, for not only does each defined language- 

 clan call the same tree by different names, but one ham- 

 let within such a region will have names which diifer 

 from the names given these trees by the next hamlet. 

 They seem to speak the same language, but have new 

 tlie timbers at names for trees. Even in the Northern Division, where 



the Binandere language is current, with slight varia- 



area, one meets extraordinary 



large 



Name. 



Xo. 



Afzelia bijuga 

 Pom (tin pinnata 

 Caloph tjll >f m in ojrfiyl- 



lum 



Octomt te$ sumatrana. . 





10 

 5 



209 



34 



Cross I {leaking Tests 



.Modulus 



of 

 Rupture 



16,485 



8,185 

 5,275 



4,736 



58.7 lbs. per cubic foot. tions, over a 



39.4 lbs. per cubic foot. differences in the names. In the case of people living 

 •!S.G lbs. per cubic foot. in savannah forests on the edge of the rain forests 

 23.1 lbs. per cubic foot. there is an exchange of names. For instance: the 



people at Doura, on the Lower Vanapa, use Suku 

 names. The Doura folk are not great bushmen, while 

 the Suku people are proper mountain folk. I have set 

 the name of thg village that uses it against the name 

 in my description, but I am not at all sure that I am 



The natives may have been unaware 



Modulus of 



E lap ti city, 



•r. v- t 



_ tl 



2,084,260 

 1,539,500 



799,075 



795,900 



C* 



9,522 

 0,110 

 4,795 



3,550 



to 





'"* •"* T, 



•5 



/. -» -L 



— ■ 



Su. J 



c 



15,750 



35 



2,120 



14,505 



1,670 



4,9(50 



2,010 



5,300 



882 



right in all cases. 



that the name was an imported one, or I may have 

 been misinformed deliberately. So, in the vocabulary 

 I have drawn up, the general locality in which the 

 names are current has been indicated, instead of par- 

 ticular villages. The difficulty of common names for 

 timbers is one that crops up in all new countries, and 

 nowhere have I experienced so much trouble as in 

 Papua. In most countries, while there may be six or 

 more languages spoken by natives, there is a lingua 



all understand and speak sufficiently for 



mg barracks 



In cross breaking, compression along the grain, ten- / ... „ 



sion along the grain, and shearing, the results are in S eiie ™1 usage. ^ The native police, ^owing to their train- 

 pounds to the square inch. Both Calophyllum and 

 Octomeles are weak timbers compared with Afzelia, 

 but that is not to say that they are not as useful, or 

 more so, for certain purposes. Calophyllum is almost 



being situated in Port Moresby, have 

 scattered a broken Motuan dialect through the Terri- 

 tory, and this may become a lingua franca in the course 

 of time. At present, however, it does not appear to 



as beautiful as cedar, and mortices and joins well; it ^ e as £' enera % satisfactory as it might be, nor is it 

 is sought after for boat knees and crooks; while ilimo **y any means a dialect that will carry the traveller 



is an excellent lining, ceiling, and wainscot timber. ail . vw he r e. . In the matter of tree names it is useless, 

 Okamu has a very fine grain, and is light enough for for tlie l )arti ™lar people from whom " Police Motuan" 

 all furniture work, and strong enough for all general * ias ( . I( ' velo l )ecl aro &e villages of Hanuabada on the 

 structural purposes. The burning tests of these four soa > ln tilc oontro of &« dry belt. Also, while some 



of the old folk know a few names of forest trees, the 

 young generation is quite ignorant. Their callings do 

 not take them into the forest. The old people use 



• Some of the Properties of six Rupuan Timbers. James Mann. Roval 

 Society of Victoria. Vol. XXIV., Part 1, 191 1. } 



t Gilbert Burnett. Timber Trees of the Territory of Papua. 



