N.Z. TIMBERS.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 January 1926, Page 4

N.Z. TIMBERS.

THEIR. NATIVE NAMES

Fugus Solandri.—The Entire-leaved Beech. Black liirch, AVhite-Ueil-Browr Birch of Canterbury—Native name Taivliai. Tins species was discovered by Banks and Solamlri in Queen Charlotte Sound in 1769. It attains a height of 100 ft, with a trunk two li lour feet in diameter. In 18T its chic I centre of conversion was the Ox lord Forest. For' the greatest portion obtained from private lands, royalty wsi> charged at Is per 100 ft, or £2 to U 10s per aero for timber only. Formerly £8 to Cls per acre had been paid.

The most heavily limbered portions of the forest have been cut out ; the lower slopes and folds ol the lulls, however, contain a large amount of good timber, yielding from 1 I,oooft to 17.000 ft per acre. Present holders arc making a fair profit at tile current rate of royalty, especially ns tins forest contains a small proportion of matai, riinn anil kahikateii. 'I lie beech forests ol Nc« Zealand uuiv l,e renewed at a minimum co-t wherever it is desirable. Whenever t roes are felled or a track is cut. through the forest, myriads of seedlings spring up, the majority of which are gradually killed off in the struggle for existence, leaving Lhe strongest to form trees. No other forests hi tTie Dominion could be made to afford a regular crop of timner at fixed periods at so small a cost. All that is required is the exclusion of cattle, and judicious thinning when neecssarv; transplanting would lie rarely failed for. If felled when fully matured anil before ileeav eonunenees. il is of high value both for strength and durability, but if tolled 100 ■arlv or too late, it speedily perishes. It is very easy to bring forward ins Lances where it has perished in a very short time. The railway between Christchurch and Lyttelton was Into with black birch sleepers Iron] the Oxford Forest, but owing to rapid decay they had to he replaced within 1 I mull Ilia of the opening of the line Fences in the vicinity of Oxford an I Alford Estates erected exclusively of black kink require to he rebuilt in five

or six years. Instances of great durability can also he cited, however. The piles of a hut erected at .Mr Pearson’s station at Burnt Hill in 1851 were in a good state of preservation twenty-eight years later. The Hon. Edward Richardson, late Minister of Public Works, states:—“l ain quite sure that, under certain conditions, the heart of black birch is almost imperishable, comparatively speaking, and very superior to the black pine and totara ol the Middle Island.”

Mr C. 11. (Torton, of Burnt Hill, says that mature specimens are commonly termed “old man birch,” and are much disliked by the bushman, as they are very difficult to split. They are «o:n----parativoly few in number, so that a large area has to lie worked, consequently the cost of obtaining first c ass timber is greatly increased. Agathis Australis (Kauri). —In 1883 Mr 8. Percy Smith. Surveyor-Genera I. estimated the area of kauri likely to pay for working at 138,170 acres. There were probably 200,000 acres producing anything from 3000 to 70.000 super feet per acre, lit 1887 (depression period) about 80,000,000 super feet were cut, 30,000,000 ft being exported, at a value ot £2124,347. The price at this time was Ids per 100 ft at mill. Cargo sold on the Clyde (Scotland) brought 225.

Tu 1870 only 5,072,(127 super feet were exported. In 1887 mottled kauri sold at .Co per 100 super feet. Cross sections of kauri reveal ten concentric rings to the inch, so that a oft tree is about 300 years old. However, with age. 30 rings per inch have been counted, making the age of a 7ft tree 1200 years, and the gigantic specimen at Mercury Bay. which is 80ft to the lowest branch and 24ft in diameter, must he well over 4000 years old. and the fine tree at the Mnungamii Bluff (60ft in circumference) would not he less than 3000 years. In the Auckland Domain trees planted twenty years ago are 20ft aml 20 niches hi cireum feronoe.