BarTLBy. — The Building Timbers oj Auckland. #7 



notice if we compare the list given by Heer oi' the vegetable 

 foods used by the Lake-dwellers, with any well prepared gar- 

 dener's catalogue of the fruits and vegetables now available for 

 food, a comparison which cannot fail to satisfy us how much 

 civilized man has already benefited, and may further expect to 

 benefit, by the application of the principle of selection to the 

 variability so especially characteristic of vegetable life, which 

 has been so admirably discussed by Mr. Darwin in the work 

 above referred to. 



Art. IV. — The Building Timbers of Auckland. 



By Edward Bartley, Architect. 



[Read before the Auckland Institute, 30f/i November. 1885.] 



Specimens of Timber to Illustrate the Paper. 



Kauri. — Four specimens : Ked, white, black, and a soft kind from Tairua. 



Piece of kauri joist destroyed by dry rot. 



Piece of kauri destroyed by grubs. 



Piece of window-sill from St. Andrew's Churcb, built in 1847. 

 Bimu. — Piece of 12 in. x f in. board, to show the difficulty in discriminating 



between sap and heart. 

 Totara. — Piece with the commencement of small spots of decay. 

 Kahikatea. — Piece of flooring completely destroyed by the grub. 



There are only four kinds of New Zealand timbers used in 

 Auckland for building purposes. I place them in the following 

 order of merit : Kauri, rimu, totara, and last kahikatea. After 

 touching on tbese various timbers, I propose to say a few words 

 on seasoning and decay of timber. Permit me to remark that 

 the statements are not gathered from hearsay, but from thirty 

 years' experience in the building trade in Auckland. I have of 

 late years taken down buildings that I either took part in erect- 

 ing or saw erected ; I have had, therefore, many opportunities 

 of studying the durability and other characteristics of our Auck- 

 land-grown timbers. 



First, the kauri (Dammara ausiralis). — I have here speci- 

 mens of four kinds of kauri : the red, white, black, and a soft 

 kind, quite distinct in grain aud quality from the others, which 

 I wiU hereafter explain. The red kauri is the best general 

 building timber ; it is well adapted for heavy framework, beams, 

 joists, and the like ; it is close-grained, rather gummy, very 

 durable, but is liable to cast and twist ; it shrinks endways as 

 well as in width. The shrinking endways is a great drawback 

 to kauri, and more especially this kind. I have known a forty 

 feet beam shrink 1^ inches in length. I have also known a 

 weatherboard shrink f of an inch in twenty feet, and most of 

 us will remember ceiling mouldings and other joiners' work 



