71 



names which were brought to them by the Ivoiari folk, 



I think. The police cannot learn the Motuan names mend trade names. No. 1 



deal more than I have, I am not prepared to reeom- 



Damoni — has been sold as 



of trees during their period of training, and so, with walnut, and it is proposed to sell No. 5 — Okamu — as 



the exception of a few very common trees, they use 

 their own country names for trees when talking to a 



red walnut. Teak has been suggested as a trade name 



. no 



for melila, and there are several more engaging the 



white man, although the whole of the conversation is attention of timber people. With 



otherwise in Police Motuan. As examples of the con- haps, of ilimo, I do not think any of our native names 



fusion, I will give the names of some common trees 



Whether No. 



Malava 



Locality. 



No. 34. 



No. 10. 



No. 4. 



No. 5. 



Motu of Galley 



Reach 

 Hanuabada Motu 

 Buna Binendere . . 

 Vailala . . 



Ilimo . . 



Ilimo . . 

 Benumba 

 I-chea . . 



Bcdira 



Melila . . 

 Bendora 

 Pira 



Nara . . 



Malava 



Taoro . . 

 Apa 



Okamu 



Okamu 



Koiawa 



Ohabu 



Another tree, No. 57, Cinnamomum 

 called Asiru at Galley Beach, but 



mass oi a, is 

 the Motuans 



of Port 



tion to 

 to 



The only solu- 



trees 



names 

 with 



is, 



an 



Moresby call it Api-api. 



•the difficulty of local common 

 my mind, the christening of the 

 official native name. Take No. 10, for instance, which 

 is Afzelia bijvrja; this tree is known to every native 

 in Papua under various names. To white folk it is 

 known everywhere, I think, as Melila, though in the 

 Delta Division a Goaribari native gave me " Bendora n 

 as the white man's name for this tree. ITe had learnt 

 it from a Northern police constable. " TJlabo," its 

 Eastern Division name, is sometimes heard, but, gener- 

 ally speaking, from one end of Papua to the other, the 

 white man calls it Melila. In the case of No. 4 — 

 Pterocarpus indicus — a wood the natives prize very 

 much, for they make their drums of it, " Malava " would 

 seem to be the accepted name. Ilimo has certainly 

 come to stay, and Okamu is, I think, likely to be 

 accepted in preference to Ohabu, though the latter runs 

 it close in popularity with Europeans. These, then, 

 are what might be termed the official native names, 

 and it would be a great advantage if the list of such 

 commonly used native names could be enlarged. 

 choice 



would make good sellers. 



should be sold under its Indian name of " Padouk, 1 ' 



which is well known on the markets of several countries, 



or under any of its trade names, such as rosewood (that 



is what it is called when exported from Burma), or 



mahogany, or redwood, or chalanga, as other lands call 



it, or be given a quite distinctive Papuan 



name, must be decided by the saw-millers of the 



future. 



One thing should be avoided, and that is the criminal 

 proceeding of labelling all woods either "soft" or 

 "hard." More harm has been done in the Australian 

 timber trade by selling seven to twelve different woods 

 to one man for one job under the name of Australian 



selling 



hardwood. No two timbers are the same, and to ask 

 a contractor to accept them as the same, and get his 

 carpenters to work them all up as one timber, is to 

 make quite certain of getting no further orders. The 

 comparative ease with which Jarrah shoulders the Vic- 

 torian hardwoods off the market is not only because of 

 its merits — Victoria 



woods 



possesses as good, and bettor, 

 •but because, thanks to a system of export 



brands, the purchaser is sure of getting timber true 



to name. It was rendered vitally necessary to Western 

 Australia, owing to the similarity between Jarrah and 

 Karri, and the saw-millers, to save themselves from 

 themselves, arranged a system of branding, and got the 



Government to embody it in a regulation of the Forests 



Department, so that all timber leaving Western Aus- 

 tralia is examined and branded "J" or "K" 



by 



an 



The 



should, 

 pronunciation. 



generally speaking, be one of ease of 

 A number of Vailala noises for trees 

 are hard to translate into our very cramped alphabet. 

 Such things as "Oihihu"— No. 311— or "Ai-ihi"— 

 No. 317 — should not, I think, be perpetuated in the 

 vocabulary of official tree names. The Northern 



a 



officer of the Forests Department. What was necessary 

 in the ease where only two timbers were being confused 

 and sold together as one kind, is infinitely more im- 

 portant in the tropics, where the number of similar 

 timbers is so great. With all the microscopic examina- 

 tion, and all aids that I can use, I have the greatest 

 dillieulty in separating some of them, and often the 



most ^ troublesome come from different botanical 



families. The trees can be separated easily in such a 

 case, but the timbers are very difficult, Yet both, 



boys" are very good bushmen; they know their trees t , „/ : '" *" \™ l ""» '"■ *"* <'""<»"■ *« ™n f 



>rv wpII indeerl nnrl tlipiv In w, ,. S. nnt -nnl. „ tIl0U ,? 1 i allk °> *» different i ^ch expands and Contracts 



very well indeed, and their 



language 



gutteral mumbling as the Vailala speech. There are 

 numbers of them in the police force, so I anticipate 

 that, as time goes on, the Northern tree names, other 

 than the Motuan ones I have already quoted, will 

 become accepted. Until the full botanical survey is 

 made, and the herbarium specimens named by the com- 

 petent authority, together with wood and bark taken 

 from the specimen tree, are available for examination 

 in the museum of the Agricultural Department, it is 

 quite hopeless to attempt to evolve any sort of order 

 out of the chaotic babel of names. 



at different rates and 



real 



name that has to be considered, 



We can call a tree " Scotch 



or 



( t 



There is another 

 and that is the trade name, 

 fir " or "pine," or "Riga pine, 



but we sell it as " deal." 

 on the market 



mahoganies. 



mahogany. While stringy bark was sold from Tas- 

 mania as V.D.L. it fetched no price; when it was called 

 Australian oak" it enabled saw-millers 



to a different degree, works 

 differently, and possibly takes paint or polish 

 differently. If both were used in say, the framing of 

 a panel, or in a floor, trouble would ensue, and the 

 Papuan hardwoods, as a whole, would be condemned 



at once. The presence of a good hoop pine and other 



soft woods makes it doubly necessary to avoid 



labelling rubbishy, spongy woods of the lowlands by 

 any name that can later on be confused with the timbers 

 Australia wants, viz., pine. 



The Mandated Territory boasts as many native names 



as Papua, and without labouring the subject I can only 



impress on the authorities the importance of establish- 



M , ■ „ ing an official common name vocabulary. Here are 



erne pine, fhe names nmst 11S(M j {)y w]lite ]MM)1 , le for t j 1(i ( . onimoiH . st 



r V ^ -. . «"^ ..i«..., .. juw.,1 u.^ u i'* \\ Hill- MMMur JUr 



1 here are twenty mahoganies < VOOG • f i 10 Towim-,/ ... i +i • 



, i x • i r i. iiee.> in tlie leiritory, and their oritnn: 



. but only two are obtained from true n , 7 



aii 4-1, i. i, • .1 i it Common Name. 



All the rest nave grains that resemble 



pleasant profit. 



it enaoiea saw-miners to reap 

 " Good wine needs no bush"; with 

 timber it is a question of seeing that the right kind 

 of bush is used. The hasty calling of a timber by the 

 name of a thoroughly known, better wood, may con- 

 demn it for ever. The use of the names teak, oak, 



Kwila 

 Irima 



Tun or Attto 



a Lup or Aluj) 



Language of. 



Rabaul 



9f 



Ivan<ra 

 Calophylluni 



Ka marere 



•* 



T 



Raliaul 



Botanical Name. 



Afzelia hi jug a 



Oct o nit left sumafrana 

 I'omrtia jnnnata 



Drac(j)itOhielum mangi- 



fcriDh. 



PterocnrpU* indicus 



< f oloj>fu/l/iim inophj/JIum 



Terhiiiuilifi cntappa 



Eucalyptus Nau</i»,iana 



That official tree names are not difficult to the native 

 walnnt, mahogany, cedar, with "Papuan/' "Island," is shown by his adopting Calophylium. The Germans 

 " .Xew Guinea" prefixed, should be used with caution, must have taught him this name and it has stuck false 

 Personally, without seeing the timbers in use a great quantities and all. 



or 



u 



