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World Markets for American Lumber 



BY UV MAXWELL 



EIGHTH ARTICLE 



Editor's Note 



Clianges move rapidly iu Ucuauia. Tbe -CanuibMl Islands' of the old geograpbles exist no longer. The speed 

 with which that part of "the world has been transformed from savagery to semi or complete civilization has been 

 remarkable When Alfred Tennyson wrote "Locksley Hall," in his younger days, ho regarded the islands of the 

 Pacihc ocean almost l.evond the influences of this worlds affairs, and spoke of them as a realm where "neTer comes 

 the trader never floats "a European flag." But the trader is now well known there, and tbe flags of Europe are com- 

 monplace ' Routes of commerce reach all the principal groups of islands, many of which are connected by cables and 

 wireless Archipelagos which a century ago were visited only by .Malay sailors in their catamarans and outrigger 

 canoes 'are now provided with wharfs, docks, and warehouses, and are ports of call for the largest ships. In 

 some of the islands the n.itives have disappeared before the white man more rapidly than the American Indian erer 

 took his departure from the land of his fathers in the most palmy da.vs of our own colonization. Australia has o.Oi 0.- 

 000 white people • and not enough of the aborigines are left to supply boomerang throwers for circuses. New Zealand s 

 natives arc' now kept as curiosities, while the last native Tasmanian full-blood died nearly twenty years ago. The 

 Fiji islanders consult Iwoks in the libraries to learn what sort of people their grandfathers were. The Island of Java 

 exports fifty-six million dollars' worth of sugar a year. Tbe former head hunters of Borneo are growing wealthy raising 

 rubber to supply aiitoinoblle tires, and even the Solomon and Society islands, which were not long ago regarded as 

 hopeless depths of outer darkness, are now bidding for their share of the civilized commerce of the world. 



Oceania is a promising field for the marketing of American forest States third, followed by France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and pos- 



products of all kinds, including large timber, rough lumber, and sibly others. The combined area of all the islands of Oceania is 



manufactured articles. A beginning only has been made in developing approximately 4,600,000 square miles, more than half of which area 



the field. Markets have been found in a few places, and such arc is included in Australia. Borneo and New Guinea are the second 



proving profitable ; but there are prospective markets in many other largest in size. Each is larger than the state of Texas. Following are 



localities where no lumber has yet been sold. the areas of some of the islands: 



When most of the lumbermen" now in business were in school study -New Guinea 312,000 square miles 



,,, , 1.L- 1- ii Borneo 283,000 square miles 



ing geography, the region of land an<i sea which is now designate.l g„^.,j,.„ 181.600 square miles 



as Oceania was called Oceaniea. The spelling has been slightly >;p„. ;^aland 104,000 square miles 



changed, but the map is about the same. The vast collection of .lava .50,400 square miles 



islands bears various names in different parts, Micronesia, Milanesia, Much of Borneo and New Guinea is still in a savage state, but the 



Polynesia, and Australasia are names for parts of the region, meaning former seems to be farther along the road to progress than the 



"little islands," "black islands," "many islands," "southern latter. A forestry department for Borneo has been organized and 



Asia." an American forester has been placed in charge. 



It is not necessary, on the present occasion, to discuss these geo- The present inhabitants of Oceania are a mixture of nearly all the 

 graphical divisions, or to consider them except in the briefest way. races in the world. The English, as far as Europeans are concerned. 

 The main point is this: Where, among all these islands, is the best predominate on account of the large and almost pure English popula- 

 lumber market, and how can the exporters of the United States take fion of Australia. Americans are fairly numerous in the Philippines 

 advantage of itt and the Hawaiian islands. Many Hollanders are found in the Dutch 

 Oceania iu its broadest sense, includes nearly all of the islands possessions. Chinese are pretty numerous on some of the islands 

 of the Pacific and Indian oceans, but more particularly those east south and southeast of Asia, where they are active and successful iu 

 of the one hundredth meridian, not including the Japanese islands. trade. In that region they are sometimes called "the Anglo-Saxons of 

 No man knows the number of islands in this area, and no man the East." They take no jiart in politics; do not interfere in affairs 

 will ever know, because they range in size from a bare rock or a of government: and they attend strictly to business, 

 sand bank of an acre or two in extent, up to such islands as New in many of the islands the aboriginal natives are in a ina.jority; 

 Guinea, Borneo, and Sumatra, containing over 200,000 square miles but they are a conglomerate mass, apparently derived from several 

 each, or Australia, which is nearly as large as the United States. It sources, all of dark skin, and many quite low in the scale of civiliza- 

 would be safe to say that there are 100,000 islands in that vast tion. Cannibalism is said not yet to be wholly stamped out in a few 

 group, counting all sizes. There are 1,800 in the Philippines alone, remote places, particularly in New Guinea. The most highly civilized 

 and they constitute a mere speck on the map. So thickly studded of the native populations of Oceania are in Java, 

 with islands and clusters of islands are parts of the Pacific ocean that In most of the islands the natives are disappearing before white 

 the seafaring nations in their canoes were once able to travel 10,000 men, in the same way that the Indians of the United States died 

 miles without touching the same islanrl twice or suffering for fresh out under the pressure of civilization. It is encouraging, however, 

 water or food. to note that on some of the islands the natives have accepted civUi- 

 A Sinking Continent zation in whole or in part, and the indications are that they will 

 It is believed by many geographers that the thousands of islands hold their ground and become useful members of the great human 

 of Oceania constitute the remnants of a sinking continent. If that family. These are some of the people whom Kipling spoke of as "half 

 view of the case is correct, the islands which still appear above water devU and half child." They were a part of the "white man's bur- 

 are the peaks and tablelands of the former continent, all the low den," which was assumed in Oceania, and it has been found that 

 parts of which have now sunken beneath the sea.. It is not par- when the "half devil" has been gotten rid of, the "half chUd" 

 ticularly important, from the standpoint of the export lumber busi- develops quite satisfactorily. 



ness, whether there is evidence to sustain the geographers in their The American lumber seller who seeks trade in the islands will find 



views or not; yet, in some ways, it has a bearing on the forest ques- some markets in cities as highly civilized as London and Chicago; 



tion, which may be briefly referred to in discussing the present forest but he may likewise push his way into regions where development is 



resources of the various islands, and accounting for some of their just beginning, and primitive conditions prevail. It has been said 



peculiarities. that man's first requirement is food, and the next is shelter. The 



Volcanos and earthquakes have greatly modified some of the islands. lumberman provides the shelter. As civilization works its way from 



and the work of the coral insect has changed the form of others and island to island, the lumberman should follow; for the new settlers 



preserved them from complete submergence. These facts have a bear- must have houses and fences. 



ing on trade routes, harbors, and the location of markets. The population of the principal islands and groups of islands of 



Political Ownership Oceania has been computed as follows: 



The islands of Oceania are apportioned among a number of leading Dutch East Indies 36,000,000 



nations. Great Britain is the largest owner, Holland next. United rhlllpplnes 7,635,0oo 



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