Austral English / A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia - Edward Ellis Morris

<hw>December</hw>, n. a summer month in Australia. See Christmas.

1885. J. Hood, `Land of the Fern,' p. 34:

"Warm December sweeps with burning breath
Across the bosom of the shrinking earth."

<hw>Deepsinker</hw>, n. (1) The largest sized tumbler; (2) the long drink served in it. The idea is taken from deep-sinking in a mining shaft.

1897. `The Argus,' Jan. 15, p. 6, Col 5:

"As athletes the cocoons can run rings round the beans; they can jump out of a tumbler—whether medium, small, or deepsinker is not recorded."

<hw>Deep Yellow-Wood</hw>, n. Rhus rhodanthema, F. v. M., N.O. Anacardiaceae. A tree with spreading head; timber valuable. See Yellow-Wood.

<hw>Deferred Payment</hw>, n. a legal phrase. "Land on deferred payment"; "Deferred payment settler"; "Pastoral deferred payment." These expressions in New Zealand have reference to the mode of statutory alienation of Crown lands, known in other colonies as conditional sale, etc., i.e. sale on time payment, with conditions binding the settler to erect improvements, ending in his acquiring the fee-simple. The system is obsolete, but many titles are still incomplete.

<hw>Dell-bird</hw>, n. another name for the Bell-bird (q.v.).

<hw>Dendrolagus</hw>, n. the scientific name of the genus of Australian marsupials called Tree-Kangaroos (q.v.). (Grk. dendron, a tree, and lagows, a hare.) Unlike the other kangaroos, their fore limbs are nearly as long as the hinder pair, and thus adapted for arboreal life. There are five species, three belong to New Guinea and two to Queensland; they are the Queensland Tree-Kangaroo, Dendrolagus lumholtzi; Bennett's T.-k., D. bennettianus; Black T.-k., D. ursinus : Brown T.-k., D. inustus; Doria's T.-k., D. dorianus. See Kangaroo.