NOT SLUMPING

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1932, Page 9

NOT SLUMPING

INSIGNIS DEMAND

RISES WHILE OTHERS FALL

TENTH OF WHOLE GUT

; .It is estimated that for the, year ending 31st March next ■ pinua insignia (radiate) will provide nearly, a tenth (9.2 per cent.) of all the timber cut in Now Zealand. Tor the preceding year (1930-31) insignia provided 5 per cent, of the cut; arid, during the ten years before that, from. 1.1 per cent, to 3.7 per. cent. So it will be/seen that insignis has rapidly moved-up from about onehundredth .to one-tenth of the annual timber production. Its advance is due to its own rise in demand, plus the fall in-demand for^the other timbers. Depression has checked them, but has not yet checked it. :Its steadiness in output and price is ; partly due. to the steadiness of its particular demand (principally the box and crate demand). The box and crate demand is less variable than the house-building demand. WINDFALL IN APPLE LAND. .■When people are in a rush to buildhouses, there is a rush on rimu and foreign competing building timbers; after the rush, the lull. Buf the fruit cape and case-oVI trade and the con-tainer-demand generally proceed steadily, and insignis has been neither flattered nor.neglected. '- It has been aided, particularly in the Nelson district, by increased use of insignis for export apple cases. A million.' cases of New Zealand apples going oversea / this year will go in fragrant pinus . insignis (replacing American hemlock). Butter will not go iif pinus insignis, but cheese will. "Cbeese: crates rank second to fruit easos in quantities manufactured. They may be solely of insignis pine or partly insignis pine and partly white pine (Podocarpus dacrydioides), in which case the ends are usually insignis pine and the battens white pine. This practice has largely arisen, from, poor manufacturing and selection of battens, and neglect of seasoning. Provided precautions are observed, an entirely satisfactory container may be manufactured wholly . from; insignis pine, a series of, tests made in a standard box. drum testing machine' showing such crates to. be fully equal to\the imported hemlock and spruce crates from North America." The. above passage'is taken from the best report yet compiled on the insignis industry of New Zealand, a report published in "The Timber/ Growers* Quarterly .Review," under the name of Jfr. C. E. Dixon.'M.Sc, A.A.8.E., of , the State Forest Service. '. He Bhows that the box and crate industry consumes over 75 per cent, of New Zealand's production of/insignia timber; .- in- this,! (by- far the principal) section of the demand, fruit.cases rank : first, cheese crates second, and • there are many other container uses; Insignis frait cases are produced on a large scale in Nelson, Canterbury,, Hawkos Bay, and Auckland. , i BUILDINO, INCLTrDINO HOUSES. .Apart from the above-75 per cent.> there is a : considerable consumption of insignis for temporary construction (concrete boxing, , temporary, tunnelling timber, scaffolding, etc.). And in some parts of New Zealand there is a building use., v- ' ■■;■/ People who, sneeze at pinus. insignis as a building, timber should" read this:, .\J " :,■ Z"Z t -■■'■■■''■".-■■'. '■' "•' -";;- ■'" • "Theuse- of: insignis pine for house building has made greater strides in Canterbury.and North Otago than elsewhere, entire houses and buildings of this timbpr?having been constructed in those regions. This is attributed jto the absence there of the native commercial forests, and to the extensive plantations of insignis thronghont the Canterbury province. The -technique, too, .of manufacturing and seasoning has been, better developed -here, than elsewhere, and those factors, together with a dry climate; have/combined to necure fairly satisfactory 'results' iorni: the us© of insignis pine in building," But if the forest-free South/has better insignis technique,' and more insignia buildings; than the North', the South is in turn eclipsed in these matters by other countries that; have successfully acclimatised" pinus insignis South Australia and ' South ■ Africa. There "the wood has -been much; more successfully used for house construe--1 tion .. . . .. the secret 'of their success, being the development of a high degree of perfection in both manufacture . and : , South Australia, for instance, by the aid of European milling and woodworking equipment and the use of modern dry kilns, is successfully, producing on a large scale practically every class of building timber required for house, construction.-For humid and badly ventilated Exposures, the wood, however, requires suitable preservative treatment. Wood-preser-vatives generally will further-' Extend the use of the wood in the building field. For barns /and other outbuildings creosoted wood; 'is' peculiarly adapted. The sanitation of the structure is improved, costly pa|nts are avoided, and a durable construction securedi To secure the best results with paints, a priming coat of anti-resih solution is desirable." •; ; BETTER SAWING AND DBYING. Some of the' improvements needed in New Zealand technique are mentioned: "Whereas the .existing practice is to saw insignis pine vwith the same equipment as for native species, the mill of the future will follow European designs, using circular and reciprocating gang saws to minimise sawdust losses and improve accuracy of sawing. With such equipment it is possible to saw thinnings down toa.diajneter of five inches under bark or even smaller, and to improve the, con version factor from present-day .practice of 4 to 6ft b.m.'per cubic foot of. log up to 5 to 7ft b.m. per'cubic foot of log." Kiln-drying is also advocated. • Stumpage, or royalty to the- owner, figures larger in the case of pinus insignis plantations than most people realise. "The stumpage values of the wood are largely determined by the accessibility and quality of the stand, and_ by the availability of competing native softwoods in the region, generally ranging from Is 6d to 2s 6d per 100 ft b.m. Occasionally as much as 5s per 100 ft b.m. has been paid for readily accessible stands, but the present market value tends towards the lower limit of the range already quoted." It is .clea/ that if Telief works produced plantations, they would be at least producing an asset. It is estimated that for 1931-32, as compared with two years ago, the production of all New Zealand timber will fall by more than half (from 282 to 130 million feet b.m.), but the production of insignis timber will advance from 10,300,000 to 12,000,000 feet. Canterbury province cuts 3,440,573 feet this year, Auckland 3,378,570 feet, Wellington 1,596,736 feet.