at Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, and Castlemaine, their supplies 

 of bark being principally drawn from the districts of North Gipps- 

 land, Mornington, Bourke, Anglesey, Grant, and Dalhousie the 

 majority of the country tanners relying on their own districts for 

 their supplies. The amount of bark annually required for Victorian 

 tanneries ranges at present from 12,000 to 15,000 tons per annum, 

 and the evidence of some members of the trade goes to prove that 

 even this large amount would be subject to an increase in the 

 event of a steady supply being ensured for some years to come. 

 It was further asserted that the excellence and abundance of the 

 Victorian bark had led to the reduction of the export trade in 

 hides to the lowest possible minimum. The Victorian tanyards 

 offered peculiar advantages, and not only were all local hides manu- 

 factured into leather in the colony, but the other colonies were laid 

 under contribution. Thousands of hides are now every year im- 

 ported from New Zealand, Queensland, and New South Wales ; 

 and this season a shipment has been received from South America ; 

 so that there can remain no doubt of the immense natural ad- 

 vantage possessed by this colony in the abundance of the bark 

 supply. 



The preponderance of the evidence given on behalf of the 

 tanners went to prove that unless the supply of good bark that 

 is to say, the bark stripped from trees of at least five years' 

 growth was maintained, the tanning industry would suffer. Any 

 diminution of the supply would lead to a speedy curtailment of 

 operations, and instead of offering a market for raw hides, this 

 colony would be under the necessity of exporting them the great 

 success already attained being solely due to the natural advantage 

 possessed in the way of bark. One witness informed the Board 

 that if the supply of bark fell off in Victoria, the tanners could not 

 afford to import tanning material in lieu thereof ; and further, that 

 the firm of tanners with whom he was associated had extended 

 their operations so as to include hides actually imported from India 

 and England. Victoria, he asserted, possessed the incalculable 

 advantage of a cheap and abundant supply of bark of superior 

 quality, and to this circumstance alone was the success of the tan- 

 ning industry attributable. To this statement another witness 

 added, that the establishment of the bark supply on a sound basis 

 would lead to the further development of the tanning industry. 

 It has been made clear, therefore, that in dealing with the subject 

 of wattle conservation the tanners have been actuated by the desire 

 to secure, as far as possible, a solution of the difficulty. Their 

 manifest anxiety arose from the danger of the bark supply becoming 

 reduced in quantity on account of the increasing export trade, and 

 at the same time deteriorated in quality from the reckless strip- 

 ping of immature trees everywhere evinced. No discrimination 



