TELEGRAMS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 85, 11 April 1911, Page 3

TELEGRAMS.

TIMBER MINE. REMAINS OF A FOREST. PRESERVED IN A SWAMP. [BY TELEGfiAPH — SPECIAL TO IBS POST.I AUCKLAND, This Daj. A quaint industry is being cairied on at Alfi'iston, about three miles from Papakiua. ft almost amounts to mining timber from the ground, and its undertakers are the Papakura Sawmilling Company. Surrounding the company's works is au .area of about 1300 acres of flat swamp land, most of which is nearly coveied with timbei — the remains of some great growth of kauri. How it came there is a mystery, and no less mysterious is the beautiful state of preservation in which the timber exists. A. few days ago a Herald reporter visited the company's claim, and saw the operations which are being carried out. Generally speaking, much of the land which the timber lies in looks utterly hopeless, for it is covered for great spaces with a tangle of gnarled and twisted remains of huge roots and branches, that give the landscape as weird an aspect as can be imagined. Nevertheless, hard work and patience have enabled some of the settlers to clear certain areas of the ewamp which have been drained and make good grazing land. The value of the claim as a timber reserve lies in the huge remains of what must at one time have been a magnificent range of trees. Walking over the soft, damp ground, which seems to be almost wholly a kind of woody peat and which readily burns, one comes every few yards upon a huge firm slab. This is the levelled surface of an old tree, which is destined after burial for who knows how many years to be dragged forth and converted to the fulfilment of human needs. In nearly all cases the timber consists of a heavy butt, with fche roots spreading ftway from it, and a tapering mass of timber. The situV tion and. position of the trees is remarkable, 'but it is not more so than the fact that the timber in them is in the best possible condition. In a few cases decay has eaten below the general level, but that appears to be exceptional. The swamp has preserved the timber wonderfully, and even the ba-rk, though it is brittle, atill remains on many of the trunks and looks quits fresh. The timber is got out by cutting it into suitable lengths as it* lies in the ground, and then hauling it out with winching gear, and pulling it by the same agency to the company's mill. To do this, a line of wire rope runs a. good half-mile over the swamp., one light rope serving to carry the heavy hauling cable out again when it has hauled in [ a log. To cut the trunks through, a pit is dug at each side, to enable a crosscut saw to be operated, and little difficulty is experienced in the work, except when the trunk is so thick that the available caws are not long enough. The trunks that have been found have included some that have belonged to forest giants, and ther& are butts whence- the""timber has been cnt__that measure 9ft v and 10ft, and even more, in diameter. The largest tree so far found was 106 ft long,, and some of the heaviest pieces have been so oig that it was impossible to take them whole to the mill, and they had to be fir6t split up by blasting.