CANTERBURY'S TIMBER.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 407, 25 October 1911, Page 5

CANTERBURY'S TIMBER.

Some alterations that are being made at the Christchurch Supreme Court have revealed the fact that white pine timber used in the construction of the old building about fifty years ago is still in a good state of preservation and the circumstances suggests again the need for the scientific investigation of problems connected with New Zealand timbers. The builder of to-day has a horror of white pine. He knows that he must not use it in any situation where enduring qualities are required, since the woodborer will destroy it within a few years at most. But white pine was us-d in the early days of settlement very extensively and old settlers are able to remember that it lasted very well. There are buildings of white pine timber on the Peninsula that have withstood the attacks of fifty or sixty years and still are in habitable condition. We do not need to put this wood into our houses to-day, since the demand for the purposes of the butterbox trade will soon be able to absorb the available supply, but an explanation of its peculiarities would be interesting. Another question that should be answered definitely relates to the value of pinna insignis as a timber tree. In its natural home hi the United States this pine is stunted and ragged, but in Canterbury at any rate it has shown its ability to produce a tall, "clean" trunk, and planks cut from it have been used in farm buildings with satisfactory results. The tree can be sent to the sawmill forty years after the seed is planted and its remarkably rapid growth gives it an enormous advantage over the recognised timber trees. Mr T. W. Adams, who has studied the growing of trees in Canterbury more closely probably than any other person, has a firm faith in the virtues of the pinus insignis and if his theory on the subject is sound, as we believe it is, the province ought to be arranging to supply itself with all the rough timber it will need in the years to come.