p instead of wood, which is
said to be serviceable as an article of food. The stem of the
largest tree at Careening Bay was twenty-nine feet in girth; it
is named the <i>Adansonia digitata</i>. A species is found in
Africa. In Australia it occurs only on the north coast."

<hw>Government</hw>, <i>n.</i> a not unusual contraction of
"Government service," used by contractors and working men.

<hw>Government men</hw>, <i>n.</i> an obsolete euphemistic name
for convicts, especially for assigned servants (q.v.).

1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 122:

"Three government men or convicts."

1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 127:

"Government men, as assigned servants were called."

<hw>Government stroke</hw>, <i>n.</i> a lazy style of doing
work, explained in quotations. The phrase is not dead.

1856. W. W. Dobie, `Recollections of a Visit to Port Phillip,'
p. 47:

"Government labourers, at ten shillings a-day, were breaking
stones with what is called `the Government stroke,' which is a
slow-going, anti-sweating kind of motion. . . ."

1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. ix. [near
end] p. 163:

"In colonial parlance the government stroke is that light and
easy mode of labour--perhaps that semblance of labour--which no
other master will endure, though government is forced to put up
with it."

1893. `Otago Witness,' December 2r, p. 9, col. 1:

"The government stroke is good enough for this kind of job."

1897. `The Argus,' Feb. 22, p. 4, col. 9:

"Like the poor the unemployed are always with us, but they have
a penchant for public works in Melbourne, with a good daily pay
and the `Government stroke' combined."

<hw>Grab-all</hw>, <i>n.</i> a kind of net used for marine
fishing near the shore. It is moored to a piece of floating
wood, and by the Tasmanian Government regulations must have a
mesh of 2 1/4 inches.

1883. Edward O. Cotton, `Evidence before Royal Commission on
the Fisheries of Tasmania,' p. 82:

"Put a graball down where you will in `bell-rope' kelp, more
silver trumpeter will get in than any other fish."

1883. Ibid. p. xvii:

"Between sunrise and sunset, nets, known as `graballs,' may be
used."

<hw>Grammatophore</hw>, <i>n.</i> scientific name for "an
Australian agamoid lizard, genus <i>Grammatophora</i>."
(`Standard.')

<hw>Grape, Gippsland</hw>, <i>n.</i> called also <i>Native
Grape</i>. An Australian fruit tree,