PINUS INSIGNTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10532, 19 January 1912, Page 4

PINUS INSIGNTS.

The experience of saw millers iu the ! Auckland district goes- to show that 'the timber from pains insignis trees lacks the necessary durability to support its usefulness for building purposes, notwithstanding a report from Canterbury that the material lias been need.in. farm buildings with satisfactory results. Messrs Macklow Bros, have during the .past two summers handled over two millon feet of jpi-imus insignis, and Mr Macklow told a reporter "recently (says the Star) ihat the timber rots very rapidly, especially when exposed to the weather, and instances had occurred with his firm : in which the decaying process 'started within two .years. The only use to which the timber was ,put was in the manufacture of boxes for genI eral purposes, but it was not suitable for fruit <eases, For the reason that it imparted a taint that was not at .a! pleasant. He agreed that the tree was a ready'grower, 'and he toad seen some trunks with a diameter of from four to five feet, after thirty years from the date of sowing the seed, and yielding two or three lots of two thousand feet each lot. However, there was a- great deal of waste in reducing the timber to a marketable article, while the fact that it was very 'knotty 'rendered it "unfit 'for .boxes at times. Mr O'Brien, of the firm of "L.0.8.," agrees that the timber is far too soft and deficient in. lasting qualities to be of any practical value for use in permanent buildings. '