BLUE GUM TIMBER.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3745, 17 July 1883, Page 3

BLUE GUM TIMBER.

[To the Editor of the Daily Telegraph. J Sir,—l notico by the report of the Hawke's Bay County Council's last meeting that it is proposed to obtain blue gum timber for the flooring of bridges. This seems a strange idea in tho face of the fact that the railway has just opened up an almost interminable forest of totara, matai, rimu, and other timbers, the worst of which is equal in durability to the rubbish imported here from time to time under the name of blue gum. There is every reason why such a proposal should be scouted. It is absurd to assert that totara cannot be obtained, for there arc plenty only too ready to undertake to supply it at a fair p r i co —a price at least twelve or fifteen shillings per one hundred feet less than the real blue gum (not Tasmanian hardwood) can bo landed for. Even if totara could not be got, matai is a good substitute, and even rimu is infinitely superior to the hardwood obtained in Tasmania, and often sold as blue gum. Probably none of the members of the Hawke's Bay County Council, nor their engineer, would know blue gum if they saw it, and would therefore be readily imposed upon with inferior timbers, as the GeneralGoverninentand their engineers have been before. If the Council desire to waste the county ratepayers' money in freighting smart Napier trading vessels from Hobar'ttown with timber which will rot in twelve months they should adopt the proposal made at tho last meeting; but I would suggest that they should write to the Engineer-in-Chief at Wellington, or Mr Blackett, the assistant engineer, for their experience of Tasmanian hardwood before doing so.—l am, &c, Blue Gum. Napier, July 17, 1883. _