PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS SECTION E. 
129 
benefit of later times, even the Angora and Cashmere goat and the 
most eligible of deer may be transferred to the Papuan Alps ? 
Could there, perhaps, the gazelles of Africa find a last refuge on 
almost inaccessible declivities, free also from ferocious pursuers, to 
preserve these poor innocent creatures of grace and utility from 
impending extinction? Even boats of British pattern in the near 
future are likely to supersede soon the native canoes, so that a ready 
sale ought to arise for the use of the aborigines. Frail pile-dwellings, 
no longer required for safety, and abandoned thousands of years ago 
as no longer needed in the lakes of Europe, will give way to buildings 
of commodious access and some approach to comfort. Imagine only the 
saving of time thus effected to the by no means unassiduous dweller. 
To single out an instance of commercial or cultural possibilities 
either actually already, or prospective, let the gutta-percha trees be 
merely mentioned, and especially the best of them —Palaquium 
Chet (a ; it has. for present practical purposes ceased to exist in 
its limited native area, and the few allied species will likely soon 
share its fate. 5T©t, of all the trees of the world, it is the most indispens- 
able, so far as our present knowledge teaches us ; by their product of 
gutta-percha for isolation of electricity they are the most wanted at the 
present time, and yet the least provided for. Unlike the very varied 
trees yielding caoutchouc in different intratropic regions, the gutta- 
percha trees are naturally restricted to the Sunda Islands and 
Malacca ; moreover, they are slow of growth ; hence the urgency of 
further searches after these precious and very select constituents of 
the empire of plants; and inasmuch as the vegetation of New 
Guinea and Polynesia- is rich in Malayan forms, such searches by 
experts, particularly from Singapore— as first urged by myself — on 
those islands for new sapotaeeous trees of the gutta-percha type 
would be exceedingly promising, and at once prove an expansive source 
for mercantile enterprise, more lucrative than ever, as by a new 
French process the incomparably useful substance could also be 
extracted from the foliage hitherto sacrificed. The English import of 
gutta-percha in 1892 was fully 4,000 tons, representing a value 
not far from a million sterling. As cellulose from piuewood has 
latterly greatly superseded other paper-material, and much changed 
the channels of supply, so also may in the progress of scientific 
research and applied technology other substances be detected which 
readily act as isolators ; but the fact remains incontestable, if a com- 
parison be allowed, that, even for so simple a substance of daily 
requirement as cork, no substitute either natural or artificial has 
been found. Hence the wisdom of planting cork oaks by the million 
in our Australian colonies as a lasting patrimony. 
There must he indeed much in store for gains through extended 
commercial efforts as new regions near to us are opened up for 
civilisation. If we east our views still further to the east, the 
thousand islands, of which Marco Polo already spoke, spread 
gradually out before us. Britain secured, besides its Fijian and other 
insular possessions, the southern islands of the large Solomon Group. 
Here we are on primeval soils, though within so easy reach. Highly 
accomplished naval officers have also there almost completed the 
coast surveys. Heroic efforts of missionaries have paved the way to 
