Research on New Zealand's Timber

Chronicle (Levin), 21 May 1949, Page 6

Research on New Zealand's Timber

The establishment of a' larg&-scale pulp and paper industry in New vZe.aland is being helped by scientifie tests that were made on timber samples. Means are also being sought for othei' uses of our timber resources.- >•" The manufacture of piilp and paper whieh the Government has recently announced is to be carried oilt on a large seale in New Zealand, calls for investigations - by "research" workers on the cheniical composition of our trees. For ' some time past th'e orgaiiie seeiion of the Dominion" Laboratoryj Departmeni of Scientifie and "Industrial Research, has beeti ffiakihg 'analyt'ibal inyestigations on exotih pines ; grdwn ; fin ithi? ; eountryl Every one or'two mohtKs analy.ses have beeo« . made ,ptf ,not. feyybt than 30 to 40 samples of various wdbdn taken from representative zones of the tree.. The ,resin,;and other extractiyes are isolated in the samples, and' exam'ination is ..then made/ on chemicalMifferences. ' . .* The resin content of wbod fpr the production of pulp is of considerable, practical importance: tob high resin content can cause pulping difficultie? unless provision is made for .dealing with it. Handled in a suitabie manner this resin may be useful for conversion to the sizing material usually added to paper pulp in the form of resin compounds. • . It has been found that insignis pine has a higher resin content in the heart than in the sapwood, and it. is hopedi that the present investigations will lead to the aevising of a satisfactory field test for distinguishing betwCen 'wood of high and low resin content. Other research work .-takin^ place in-s cludes investigations lon the' Wo'pds . of native trees— the - rimu'- and "the' tawa. Means are' sought for' the chemical eon version of waste timber and sawdusl iuto plastic powder that eah 'be' mbuldteil or used with resin 'plasticv Tt. is hbped to include in these '"inv.estiga"tions ex-! periments o.n the improvement, .of " the durability of timber, -aud the plastic mudifieation of plywood surfaces ip order to improve durability and appearance.