SELLING, VALUING, AND MEASURING TIMBER 153 



on their own terms. Many proprietors and their agents 

 doubtless believe that by selling by auction they avoid the 

 risk of dishonest dealings between their employees and 

 timber merchants, either in the shape of bribery or lenient 

 measurement. Timber merchants, in their opinion, are not 

 over-scrupulous in their practices, while foresters and wood- 

 men are easily " got at." Whether this is so or not we may 

 leave an open question, but we think that general experience 

 proves that one cannot guard against fraud by any system, 

 and that servants are generally what their masters make 

 them. 



But taking the supposed advantages of selling by auction 

 in the order in which we have named them, it may be worth 

 while inquiring into the extent of their reality or otherwise. 

 The benefit accruing to the timber owner from competition 

 amongst buyers would seem to be a foregone conclusion in 

 any case. When each intending purchaser knows that his 

 only chance of obtaining a particular lot depends upon his 

 bidding higher than anyone else, his means of obtaining that 

 particular lot appear to be obvious. No doubt, with a keen 

 competition existing, either owing to the comparative scarcity 

 of timber just at the time or to its superiority, the chances 

 of obtaining good prices in that particular manner are good, 

 and competition does result in obtaining a higher price than 

 would be obtained in other ways. But with ordinary timber, 

 and at ordinary times, the fact that more than one man is 

 bidding for a particular lot is by no means an indication that 

 the respective bidders are competing against one another. 

 In all probability a quiet meeting of the majority of the 

 buyers took place a little earlier than the sale, and amicable 

 arrangements were made whereby each participant in that 

 arrangement was guaranteed the requisite quantity of timber 

 at the lowest possible price. If persons outside that arrange- 

 ment want lots included in it, they must be prepared to fight 

 this combination of buyers on the latter's terms, and, if the 

 former happen to be select but limited purchasers (and this 

 is generally common knowledge), they may be able to get 

 their timber on reasonable terms or the reverse, according 

 to the estimation in which they happen to be held by the 

 " ring." They may be run up to exorbitant figures (in which 



