New Zealand Timber.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 218, 13 January 1874, Page 7

New Zealand Timber.

A pjtper "On.some common faults in j the construction of timber buildings in i New Zealand," \>y the Rev. J. 0. ITulcorabe, was read at the Nelson Exhibition. The author discussed at length the ppi-i»liah]e-ness of our wooden buildings—which fact he attributes to the faulty manner of using Colonial timbers. "There are woods," he says, "in New Zealand, e.g., yellow pine. totara, niatai or red pine, kauri, black birch and red birch, which, from careful European observation and Maori testimony of long experience, are apparently as endurable, though not so tough and strong, as English oak or chestnut. But they are commonly subjected to such treatment as causes the best grown English oak to perish in a few years. That or any other timber, if felled when the sup is in active motion, is destroyed almost immediately by dry rot, even without the aid of external moisture. Accordingly, throughout Europe, all timber js felled in the depth of winter, and in this country ought only to be felled during a season of six weeks in the months of May and June. As it is. it is felled at all seasons of the year, the sawyers preferring it full of sap as being ia that state easier to cut ; and nny one may have seen, what [ have often observed myself, sawn timber being used in buildings with the sap visibly oozing out under every blow of a hammer upon the nails. And then people blame i the timber so treated for not lusting. This, the main fault of all. arises chiefly from the ignorance and indifference of sawyers and saw-mill owners, nor is it likely to be remedied by them until architects I and builders, and especially their em plovers, | insist upon all timbers being felled onty in May and June. Again, another important fault is the neglect of seasoning before using. It is well known that all timber ought to remain in balk for a twelvemonth before being sawn up, and further remain for a certain p'-riod, longer or shorter a< - cording to thickness, before being fit for luse. Timber merchants might do minli j to remedy this fault, though they arc nit likely to do it until the final paymasters, the owners of buildings, insist upon its being 'done, and are ready to pa* proportionally to the increased value of the material* We have in the native timbers of this country a material generally superior in beauty of grain and colour to those of Europe ; a material more capable than any other of being made available to the permanent internal decora tie ik of our

dwellings.; a uiateruil which, by judicious enable the artistic workman to reriderliJnr' bdildings externally and' internally, * things of beauty and a joy for over' to the eyes 6f_ the builders and their remote posterity. It might bo that the chemists could aid towards the preservauee of our timber buildings. I would venture to suggest to them whether it .would not toe. pofisiblo to invent some; siliceous preparation applicable to wood, as a species of glaze, which should both increase its durability and lessen inflammability."