Day 241 - 26 Apr 96 - Page 28


     
     1        which make it clear that the issue is not just about the,
     2        or what is put to be the strict definition of rainforest
     3        that it is about all tropical forests and that is basically
     4        what everybody understood by rainforest when they used the
     5        term rainforest and that includes McDonald's.  It is really
     6        just a point.  The general point that I want to make is
     7        that I am a bit concerned that evidence is being restricted
     8        at this stage as to, because of a kind of decision or
     9        whatever on what the issues are when not all the evidence
    10        has been heard.
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I said has nothing to do with what the
    13        issues are.  What I said was this.  It is important for me
    14        I, can see that it is relevant for me to know when a
    15        witness is in the witness box what they mean when they say
    16        rainforest because otherwise I cannot be confident I am
    17        understanding their evidence accurately.  But what they
    18        cannot do is give evidence of what they understood
    19        rainforest means when they read the leaflet, and by
    20        extension, they cannot give evidence of what an ordinary
    21        reader of the leaflet would mean rainforest to mean.  So
    22        long as rainforest is an ordinary English word and not a
    23        word which one requires specialised knowledge to interpret
    24        and in my view one does not need specialised knowledge to
    25        interpret what rainforest means.
    26
    27   MS. STEEL:   Well-----
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is an ordinary English word.
    30
    31   MS. STEEL:   I am not entirely sure that it is or that it is
    32        used in that way.  From what I understand of the situation
    33        is that throughout the period of concern in the 70's and
    34        80's an still now, that every time, virtually every time
    35        anyone was talking about rainforest they were actually
    36        talking about all tropical forests and they were just
    37        calling it under the umbrella of rainforests.
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You can place that argument if you wish, but
    40        I have difficulty with that because some of the witnesses
    41        speak about rainforests in contra distinction to tropical
    42        forest.  Or speak about rain or moist forests tropical
    43        forest in contra distinction to dry tropical forest.  In
    44        fact I spent a bit of time yesterday going through the
    45        witnesses and making some notes of my own as to where it
    46        appeared anyway, that rainforest did not in their
    47        terminology for the purposes of their statement, mean all
    48        tropical forest.  It may be that you will be able to point
    49        to other witnesses who use the-- where you think you can
    50        argue, "look, in that witness' statement" or "in that 
    51        witness' evidence" they use rainforest to cover all 
    52        tropical forests whether wet moist or dry. 
    53
    54        But the point at the moment is that I do not, subject to
    55        being persuaded, that I am wrong to think that rainforest
    56        is a word which one needs specialist knowledge to
    57        interpret.
    58
    59   MS. STEEL:   It is not so much specialist knowledge to
    60        interpret, but it is an awareness of the fact that the word

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