PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 335 



semi-refined methyl alcohol, pure acetone, ethyl methyl ketone, 

 refined acetone, refined oil, wood pitch, wood tar, tar oil for 

 paints, crude tar oil, tar spirit, and other by-products. 



Tanning. 



Practically nothing has been done to investigate the tanning 

 possibilities of our timbers, yet Mr. ll. G. Smith informs me that 

 he has obtained as much as from 7 to 9 per cent, tannin in the saw- 

 dust of E. microcorys, "tallow wood." Here is an untrodden 

 field of research. 



Wood Pulp. 



The amount of paper imported into Australia, according to 

 Mr. G. H. Knibbs, Commonwealth Statistician, is £1,600,000. 



When travelling through the coastal ranges of this continent, 

 and seeing the enormous amount of standing eucalyptus trees, one 

 often wonders cannot something be done to utilize these trees un- 

 suitable for their timber ? Cellulose is cellulose whether in hard- 

 wood trees, such as these, or American soft-woods. 



Whilst not unmindful of the gi-eat natural advantage of North 

 America, Norway, and Sweden — great wood-pulp exporters — in 

 their swift-flowing rivers of such inestimable value in these days 

 of electric motor power, and at the same time admitting that cer- 

 tain adverse conditions obtain here, yet to my mind they do not 

 present insuperable difficulties. I would attack them, first by 

 having more powerful machinery to break down the fibre, and 

 next by damming up some of the more suitable gullies for a water 

 supply. 



Since experiments have been made with our eucalyptus timbers 

 with satisfactory results, so that this portion of the investigation 

 is past, I would suggest that the initial plant should be erected in 

 Tasmania, where there is a good supply of the soft kinds of euca- 

 lyptus timbers, and an equally good supply of rivers. In a depu- 

 tation before the Minister of Lands in Tasmania in July last, Mr. 

 W. E. Shoobridge made the following statements: — "That there 

 v/as a greater weight of timber per acre in Tasmania th&n in any 

 other country in the world. It was principally eucalyptus of 

 various kinds, and a large proportion of it nad been reckoned as 

 valueless. Roughly speaking, 3,000,000 acres of land had been 

 cleared, and a total of 60,000,000 tons of wood, from which excel- 

 lent pulp could have been made for paper-making, had been 

 destroyed. Considering this enormous waste of timber, it was 

 time that something was done to put our timber resources to prac- 

 tical use. He believed that it would be possible lo place orders 

 for thousands of tons of wood-pulp every year. Paper to the value 

 of £3,000,000 was imported into the Commonwealth every year 



