NEW ZEALAND TIMBERS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4630, 26 January 1894, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND TIMBERS.

1 had a brief chut with Mr Percy Johnson concerning the prospeota of New Zealand timbers at Home on Wednesday afternoon writes the London correspondent of the N, Z. Times, under date December 16ih. Unfortunately, Mr Jobußon was very busy, and his time was too valuable for me to waste, besides which he appeared to doubt somewhat the advisability of telliug mo much for the reason that , he feared someone might make use of , the information he had obtained at no ' small expense and a large mnoiint of ' personal labour. Bo hu was less communicative than 1 hoped to find him. He said that during his 'Our of the provincial cities he found a demand for kauri existed at both Liverpool andNewcastle,whilit the Government were badly in want of woods suitable forgon stocks, gun cartridges, eto For these purposes Mr Johnson believes that totura would be very suitable, but there is not a sufficient stock in hind here for the purpose of exhaua. tire experiments euch aa the Govern- i ment always make before deuidingon the use of any material, The Government are already acquainted with the virtues of kauri, and he believes that' timber will be largely used by the authorities in the nsar future. As ' regards the fancy woods, Mr John&on ! found that firms like Maple and Sons would be very glad to mike use of the figured rimti, mottled kauri and kindred woods, provided they could depend on a constant supply, They, however, deolare that it is no use touching these woods unless they can be assured that they will be able to fulfil orders for goods that come in later. It would, there' fore, be useless to oonsign tlie rare woods such as are difficult to obtain in the Colony in quantity. He looks principally to the development of the trade in kauri, totara, and riruu, and such decorative woods as are readily obtainable in the Colony, and can be placed on the market here at a moderate prico. For cheap soft woods there is no opening, With regard to the figured timbers, he cautions people not to send stuff that haß been cut wLilßt the sap is on the rise, for snch stuff loses its colour and becomes foxy.