From Ferdinand von Mueller to the Editor of the Argus   27 Dec 1861

[In reference to a passage which occurs in a letter published in our issue of yesterday, and signed "A Cynical Juror," to the effect that the collection of native woods in the late Exhibition had been "papered blue to hide defects,"¹ Dr. Mueller informs us that the writer has fallen into a mistake, inasmuch as the blue paper in question was not designed to hide defects in the wood, but to arrest a too rapid evaporation of the sap. There had not been sufficient time to subject the woods to the process of seasoning by immersion, nor could so largo a collection be subjected to steam drying in this colony. By the time the woods arrive in England, Dr. Mueller is of opinion they will be sufficiently dry to admit of being polished, and then the paper would of course be removed.² "A Cynical Juror," according to the same authority, has also fallen into error in supposing that "in woods we shall compare disadvantageously with most countries," and that "our architects, cabinet-makers, and craftsmen prefer imported woods to Victorian." There is but a limited means of access to the ranges in which the woods grow, at present, but when greater facilities of procuring them are obtained, and they have been subjected to further test and inquiry, Dr. Mueller thinks there will be small doubt that our native woods will be, to a large extent, substituted for foreign. There are about 120 different kinds of timber in Victoria, about eighty of which were exhibited; and it is probable the majority of them will be found perfectly available for the purposes of trade and manufacture.]