compelled to purchase this bark at higher prices than ruled formerly 

 for the bark of mature age, the effect of which was stated by one 

 witness to be that "581 tons of bark were now required to produce 

 the same results as were obtained from 400 tons in past years. 

 This was entirely attributable to the inferior quality of the bark 

 brought into the market by men who had stripped without the 

 slightest discrimination." The bark was at first shipped for the 

 English market in the stick or bundle. In this form its quality 

 could be more readily judged ; but, subsequently, when the supply ot 

 mature trees became diminished, nearly all the bark was chopped or 

 ground prior to shipment, good and inferior being bagged together. 



With the permanent establishment of the export trade a more 

 reckless system of stripping appears to have been encouraged, 

 chiefly owing to the difficulty experienced in the detection of bark 

 of inferior quality. Not only has the bark been stripped from 

 young trees, but the strippers have spread their operations over 

 the whole of the year, another militating circumstance, as the great 

 mass of evidence clearly established the fact that bark should only 

 be stripped during three or four months of the year ; out of that 

 season there is a depreciation of tannin in the bark. Owing to 

 these causes, and also to the moist condition in which the bark has 

 often been shipped, its value to the tanner has depreciated, and 

 purchasers in England, finding the quality variable, have not 

 entered into its regular employment as largely as might have been 

 expected. Under ordinary circumstances, and with due regard 

 being paid to the interests of the tanners, there is every probability 

 that the Victorian wattle bark would hold its own in the home 

 markets against the other tanning barks at present known. 



The Board are of opinion that, with the enforcement of regula- 

 tions, confining strippers to trees of mature growth, and to a certain 

 season of the year, the quality of the bark could be maintained, and 

 the supply rendered less liable to fluctuation or possible decrease. 

 The dissemination of intelligible instructions to strippers, together 

 with increased supervision on the part of the Crown officers, would, 

 no doubt, produce a greater uniformity of quality even under exist- 

 ing circumstances. The knowledge that some provision was made 

 for the protection of their interests would establish confidence in 

 the minds of the English and continental tanners, thereby leading 

 to an increase in its marketable value. 



Directly opposed to the view taken by the representatives of the 

 tanning trade was the evidence tendered by and on behalf of the 

 exporters of bark, and also the testimony given by bark strippers 

 themselves. 



To such an extent did this diversity prevail, and so contradictory 

 were the statements made, that the Board determined to institute 

 a rigid personal inspection of the resources of the colony, and, in 



