171 



SECTION E. 



THE COMMERCIAL OUTLOOK 



While Papua and the Mandated Territory, with all of fungus and 

 the islands, are geographically well placed for the de- tempts to cut mixed timbei 

 velopment of a timber industry , having a large market 

 at their doors, no one has, up to date, been able to 

 establish a profitable export trade either of round logs 

 or in sawn timber. Small contractors have made 

 profits in getting cedar (No. 9 — ( f alrela av*tniV\*) from 

 the bush to the coast, but rarely have the larger con- 

 tractors found anything over when they have paid the 

 cost, including freight, and been paid the Queensland 

 prices for their wood. At no time was the business 



insects, and through cracking. 



. At- 

 instead of mining the 

 forests for one precious one, have been equally unsuo- 

 cessfull ; and while mismanagement and lack of organ- 

 ization may have had something to do with one or two 

 of these enterprises, the real reason lies, I am afraid, 

 in the poverty of the forests, and the mixture of 

 species that compose them. 



Subjoined is a summary of all the surveys that I 

 have made of the rain forests of the lowlands of 



Papua. 



Except the forests near Sagari, 



which is 



developed sufficiently to enable a ship to ply constantly only a scrap, and these around Embi Lake, which are 



not large enough for the development of a big milling 

 business and should, I think, be reserved for future 



Enough cedar was brought down 



between New Guinea and Sydney, loaded with timber. 



from the Upper 

 Vailala to fill several ships of moderate tonnage, but 

 over a year elapsed before a ship came out for the wood, 

 and by that time many rafts of fine cedar logs had 

 been washed cut to sea, and a large quantity, stacked 

 on the beach, had depreciated in value through attacks 



Government requirements, the forests of the lowlands 

 carry an exceedingly low volume of timber. This, 

 combined with the fact that no single species occurs in 

 sufficient numbers on any area to make the sawing of 

 one timber possible, has made profitable saw-milling 



Summary of Results or Surveys of al\ L >wla\d Bain Forests. 



Xum)»rr of 



Species, 



Cubic Contents. 



Number of 



Trees. 



Table 

 Ta ble 

 Table 

 Table 

 Table 

 Ta ble 

 Table 

 Table 

 Table 

 Table 



No. 

 No. 

 No. 

 No. 

 No. 

 No. 

 No. 

 No. 

 No. 

 No. 



I. 



IV. 

 VI [. 



X. 



XIII. 



XV. 



XVII. 



xvm. 



xx i r. 



Veimauri River, C. D. 

 Venapa River, No. 1 (amp, C. D 

 Venapa River, No. 2 Camp, C. D 

 Soputa, N. I>. 



Kaunas i River N. D. 



Sagari Milage, N. D. 



Embi Lake, N. D. 



Baroi River, Ta Camp, 1). I). 



•Baroi River, Camps 2-5, D. D. 



Vailala River, Camps 1-6, G. J). 



• • 



• • 



• ■ 



• • 



• « 



• • 



• • 



• a 



9 9 



• • 



• • 



(IS 



64 

 47 



27 



8 



2S 



:*r> 



437 

 268 



2215 



398 



17:* 



840 



144 



193 



4 85 



Tut:ll. 



Cubic f«'«t. 



:{f>,20!> 



.*$.">. s 7. '{ 



46,326 



2<),82(i 



66, I'M 



30,661 



113,918 

 17.!Mii> 



25,527 



\\ i Acre. 



Cubic iV.-t 



:52r> 



f»77 



436 



34 t 



f>r» l 



764 



383 



Per Tree 



riil.ii U « i 

 SO 



1 26 

 169 



120 



138 



17(i 

 1 35 

 124 



132 



1 35 



Trees per 



Acre. 



4 



4-4 



2*6 



2-S 



4 

 4 • 3 



10-6 



4-8 



4*5 



2-ii 



difficult, if not impossible. The requirements of the 

 Territory itself are email, and could be served without 

 difficulty by pit-sawyers. A development in the con- 

 sumption of wood is not at all likely, for many genera- 

 tions — until, in fact, the Papuan native acquires tastes 

 in architecture which are euphemistically called Euro- 

 pean. Yet in their lowland forests there are a host of 

 beautiful timbers, precious woods w r hich should com- 

 mand a price if carefully sawn and placed on a market 



where aesthetic taste in panelling and general indoor 

 decoration prevails. In Australia, people are still toe 



sufficient to fill the demand, which has been supplied 



from Australia. So- one finds baltic, oregon, Aus- 

 tralian hardwood entering into the const ruction of 

 buildings; and there is, except in the houses and 

 churches of the Mission Societies, very little local 

 timber. 



On the main island of New Guinea, the Lutheran 

 Mission at Finsch-hafen has been cutting mixed woods 

 for many years, but it has been a case with them of 



picking the eyes out of th 



' . 



/ 



and Pometia have supplied their main mill logs with a 

 busy carving homes out of national resources to really sprinkling ot,^Pteroearpu*, Vitex, and a case timber for 

 develop a large demand for the very beautiful in the * ' ' ™ 1 ~" 



making trade boxes. Elsewhere, I have explained the 



iraming. 



larger mai ket 



decoration of home life. They are too busy painting reason for not using ihe soft woods which has made 



the picture to worry about its framing. For the their saw-milling so very difficult. The mill is heavilj 



beautiful Papuan timbers to reach a 



means a heavv freight-cost, and unless there hi a 



bread-and-butter line for the saw-miller to fall back 



on, such cutting of the forest for its precious woods 



cannot possibly ;pay. Is there any common 'stuff 



within reach of every one's pocket that can be cut in 



I fear not. What has been written re- 



quantities? 



gardinor Papua is equally true for the Mandated Terri- 

 tory. There are no areas of immediately acce.^iblo 

 and obviously profitable forests Ifor the saw-miller. 

 Thanks to the eucalyptus forests close to the capital, 

 and to the splendid conservative cutting of the Mission 

 folk, there has been a small but continuous supply of 



handicapped now for want cf logs and is faced with 

 road-making or train-laying to open new forest, both 



very expensive operations. 



At Alexishafen, the R.C. Mission is faced with the 

 same difficulty, only here it is more serious as there 

 is no forest to open up, and it will be necessary to 

 shift, the mill altogether to a new site. The choice 

 of tlie new site is causing much anxious thought, and 

 1 am afraid that some difficulty will be experieno d 

 in finding anything suitable within the region of this 

 society's influence, viz., from Madang io A it ape. This 

 Statement makes ihe poverty of the country from a 

 ordinary standpoint pretty clear. In addition to the. 



good sound timber for Eabaul, but it has never been forest jungle woods already enumerated, the Alexishafen 



F.123S9.— 12 



