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The palings round this building are also of imported pine, and although only of seven years’ standing they 
have now to be pulled down on account of the white ants eating the boards, and replaced by palings made 
out of the locally-grown pine. Other houses in the same town, with palings of Colonial Pine, standing 
over fifteen years, show no signs of white ants.—(Forester Harris, Gunnedah.) 
Exudation ( Australian Sandarac). —It was a specimen of resin from tlie 
Oyster Bay Pine of Tasmania ( C. cupressiformis, var. tasmanica), sent to the 
Exhibition of 1851, which first drew the attention of experts to the possibilities of 
Australian Sandarac. Eor “the fine pale resin of the Oyster Bay Pine ( Callitris 
australis), from the eastern coast of Van Diemen’s Land,” and other gums and 
resins, Mr. J. Milligan was awarded honourable mention.—(Jury Reports, 1851 
Exhibition, p. 182.) 
This is one of the most valuable of Australian* vegetable products ; a market 
is ready for it, and it seems strange that it should have been so much neglected. 
There are no statistics available in regard to the importation of Sandarac into these 
colonies, but to bring it here at all is a veritable “ carrying coals to Newcastle.” 
It is a matter of common observation, that a number of raw vegetable 
products of more or less importance are going to waste in Australia, simply because 
our people are ignorant of their properties and value. I can hardly cite a better 
instance than that of Australian Sandarac. Here we have a product absolutely 
and entirely identical in chemical and physical properties with a well-known article 
in regular demand. The price of this article at London auction sales is shown by 
figures readily accessible, while its cost in Sydney is very much enhanced; and 
yet we actually import from Algeria, via London, at this high price, what is common 
enough in parts of New South Wales, and to be had for the gathering. 
The collection of Australian Sandarac is one of those minor industries which 
could be readily undertaken by a family of children. As the resin flows from the 
Cypress Pines it could be accumulated in clean dust-proof tins until a sufficient 
quantity was obtained to be sold to the local storekeeper, who would again sell to 
the wholesale chemist, or wholesale oil and colourman of Sydney. Sandarac is 
usually graded. There would be no difficulty in grading locally our local product, 
while any surplus available for export could be shipped without grading if found 
expedient. 
I have no means of getting at the consumption of Sandarac in this State, 
but we ought to be able to supply the local demand, and have a good surplus for 
export. 
The mealy appearance on Sandarac resin which has remained too long on 
the trees is well known, and can be easily removed by a weak solution of potash, as 
suggested by Mr. It. Ingham Clark. Samples thus treated take on a bright fresh 
appearance, as if freshly exuded. 
* Notes on Sandarac will be found in Spon’s Encyc. of Manuf. and Raw Materials (Lock), p. 16S1, also in Julius 
Wiesner’s Die Rohstoffe des PJtanzcnreiches , i, 249. Notes on Australian Sandarac will be found in papers by nic in the 
Proc. Roy. Soc., Tasmania, 1889, and in the Agric. Gazette (N.S. IV), for May, 1894, and July, 1895, also in Proc. Roy. 
Soc., N.E.W., 1901. 
