e the
freight charges paid to the owners or agents, by persons
sending goods in a ship. It was called by the French
<i>pot-de-vin du maitre</i>,--a sort of <i>pourboire</i>,
in fact. Now-a-days the captain has no concern with the
freight arrangements, and the word in this sense has disappeared.
It has re-appeared in Australia under a new form. In 1893
the Victorian Parliament imposed a duty of one per cent.
on the <i>Prime</i>, as the Customs laws call the first entry
of goods. This tax was called <i>Primage</i>, and raised such
an outcry among commercial men that in 1895 it was repealed.

<hw>Primrose, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. The name is given in
Tasmania to <i>Goodenia geniculata</i>, R. Br.,
<i>N.O. Goodeniaceae</i>. There are many species of
<i>Goodenia</i> in Australia, and they contain a tonic bitter
which has not been examined.

<hw>Prion</hw>, <i>n</i>. a sea-bird. See <i>Dove-Petrel</i>.
(Grk. <i>priown</i>, a saw.) The sides of its bill are like
the teeth of a saw.

1885. W. O. Legge, `Australasian Association for the
Advancement of Science' (Brisbane), p. 448:

"The name Prion, as almost universally applied elsewhere to the
Blue Petrels, has been kept [in Australia] as an English name."

<HW>Prop</HW>, <i>v</i>. of a horse: to stop suddenly.

1870. E. B. Kennedy, `Four Years in Queensland,' p. 194:

"Another man used to teach his horse (which was free from
vice) to gallop full speed up to the verandah of a house, and
when almost against it, the animal would stop in his stride (or
prop), when the rider vaulted lightly over his head on to the
verandah."

1880. W. Senior, `Travel and Trout,' p.52:

"How on a sudden emergency the sensible animal will
instantaneously check his impetuosity, `prop,' and swing round
at a tangent."

1884. Rolf Boldrewood,' Melbourne Memories,' c. xxi. p. 152:

"Traveller's dam had an ineradicable taste for propping."

1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 153:

"His horse propped short, and sent him flying over its head."

<hw>Prop</hw>, <i>n</i>. a sudden stop.

1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xvi. p. 115:

"The `touchy' mare gave so sudden a `prop,' accompanied by a
desperate plunge, that he was thrown."

<hw>Prospect</hw>, v. to search for gold. In the word, and in
all its derivatives, the accent is thrown back on to the first
syllable. This word, in such frequent use in Australia, is
generally supposed to be of Austr