The Crown Lands of British Guiana. 343 



supplied to the man at fixed rates by law and a true 

 record kept of the transa6lion, subje6l to periodical in- 

 spe6lion and on occasion of request by any Government 

 officer. 



The institution of sworn measurers would be no end 

 of a humbug. The callipers is the measure in use in all 

 timber transaftions on the Demerara river. 



The string is only used on the Essequebo and in Eng- 

 land. I use both callipers and string in loading ships for 

 England and consequently ought to know the relation 

 between the two systems. I use Liverpool style not 

 London. The 1890 regulation stipulates that string mea- 

 sure be used in paying royalty. String measure is 

 always less than calliper, the difference between them 

 being a measure of the quality of the squaring, more 

 so in large than in small logs. The difference between 

 string and calliper in Demerara river varies from about 14 

 to 200/0. It is impossible for the Crown Land Officer to 

 measure by string owing to the manner in which timber 

 is delivered, therefore with the knowledge and sandlion of 

 his chief he measures by calliper and dedu6ls 10 0/0 

 only to turn his measure into string. It is penny wise 

 and pound foolish for any dealer to employ a common 

 porter to measure timber. My driver, who does that 

 work, is an expert at it, and usually does it with a gang 

 of 4 men, and it requires all his acumen to pick out 

 plugs and sundry other little pieces of inlaid work 

 calculated to defraud the buyer. I have never cut off 

 anything but actually bad timber and that is done in 

 the presence of the seller or his representative by the 

 driver if it is anything usual ; if unusual he consults 

 me as to how much he should cut off. As a rule the 



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