Control Needed

NZ Truth, Issue 1209, 31 January 1929, Page 4

Control Needed

A MONGr their other advantages, premises built of brick or concrete do not harbor the dreaded borer, as is the case with wooden buildings. : If, m the past, New Zealand has had ■ a plentiful supply of wood with which to build,' it has also provided a, home for those destructive little insects yvhich, within the passage of a few years, reduce a structure to a crumbling shell. All New Zealand's main centres are badly infested with this borer and the alarming rapidity with which the pest spreads calls for some investigation into the problem. Part of the trouble is due to the indiscriminate use of old timbers —used withoiit; any. thought of the clangers they "carry. After almost 'every demolition m the cities there are to be seen huge cairns of old and worm-riddled wood," stacked up for auction or private, sale; The best 1 -' Qf it is sold -as second-hqiid building material, and the remainder disposed of as firewood. : Most of the 'firewood, which purchasers usually, stack under tenement houses or m. the basements of private residences, is riddled; with borer. It is easy to imagine the damage that could result from a twelve moriths' supply of wood thus stowed away. It should be the duty of local governing bodies to have all timbers from dismantled buildings, thoroughly inspected before being offei-ed for sale. All borer-infested, wood should be destroyed immediately. And. as the Governriient.is a large moneylender to the general, public for the erection of homes, it. should be' the responsibility of some department to ensure that State-mortgaged houses are not allowed to be at the mercy of the borer. '