479 



Gum; 6, Tallow-wood, snowing how I proposed to group certain commercial timbers 

 under these sis names, suppressing some local ones for the common good, in order that 

 both seller and buyer might be spared a. good deal of the confusion which at present 

 results from our rich collection of common names. 



I also made two suggestions : — 



A. Timber Committee. — There would require to be established an expert timber 

 committee, on which all the Forest Departments would have representation, and this 

 would be in touch with the Customs Department. One of its functions would be to 

 state the various timbers which are from time to time approved for export, and under 

 what names. For example, the name " Jarrah " means a timber of a certain standard, 

 and the committee would not permit any to pass under that name which would lower the 

 standard agreed upon. 



B. Timber Grading.- — When we have correct nomenclature, and when we have 

 got over our difficulty of suppression of unnecessary local names (for export purposes), 

 we will still have to devise rules for grading. For example, as regards Ironbark, we might 

 have Red Ironbark and Pale Ironbark, and of the former, say three qualities, 1 , 2, 3. This 

 would be an important work of the Timber Committee, and standard timbers, approved 

 both as to name and to various qualities, would be placed conveniently at every place 

 of export and in other suitable places. Provision would doubtless be made for branding 

 timber to briefly indicate names and qualities. - 



The suggestions made in my paper were not taken up at the time, and I did not 

 expect them to be. This is not the only Eucalyptus matter in which I have been ahead 

 of my time. There is too much interstate jealousy in the timber trade yet to permit much 

 serious working together for the common good. I ask my readers to read the whole of my 

 paper, of which I have only given an abstract, and I say to my critics : — " Instead of 

 offering a blind eye to my paper, point out where I am wrong, and why, and, better 

 still, make constructive suggestions which will help us out of a state of things which is at 

 present a public scandal." Destructive criticism is the easiest thing imaginable, but 

 constructive criticism alone advances knowledge. I am sometimes inclined to be 

 down-hearted in regard to the results of my efforts, extending over so many years, to 

 improve the nomenclature of our timbers, but have come to the conclusion that no real 

 improvement will be made until we have an educated public. This we will have to make, 

 and our teaching must commence in the elementary schools. 



(To save repetition, some of the early work, involving the nomenclature of timbers, 

 will be found in Part LIII of the present work, pp. 128-136.) 



4. In my " Forest Flora of New South Wales " I have made an occasional 



digression in regard to the advantage of a stable nomenclature in timbeis. Thus, under 



E. saligna at Part IV, p. 76, I discuss the losses and uncertainties which have arisen 



through foreign buyers receiving totally different timbers under the one name of Blue 



E 



