84 



Useful for ships' planking and decking of bridges, &c., &c. It is one of our 

 best hardwoods, although not liked by sawyers and mill proprietors. (Mr. 

 Forester MacDonald, Kempsey.) 



The Hon. W. Pettigrew, of Brisbane, wrote to me (August, 1891) : 



Some of this timber was cut into sleepers for a railway near Double Island 

 Point, Queensland, in 1878, and a few months ago they were examined and 

 found sound no white ants at all about them. The railway was abandoned 

 over ten years ago. 



Mr. Pettigrew's opinion (written in 1877) is, however, not favourable as 

 to this timber. 



This timber is of no account for sawing, as it twists and gets uneven in 

 drying. 



It would appear that this timber obtains its best development in New 

 South Wales, say, from! the Manning to the Richmond Rivers. 



Following is an extract from a letter to the Daily Telegraph, Sydney, of 

 9th September, 1903: 



About 1890, I had a large contract for the Melbourne Harbour Trust. Th* 

 specifications stated red gum, red ironbark, and box. The only box timber 

 about Were is brush box, and I cut some 1G,000 feet of this, 12 x 4, for deck- 

 ing, and shipped it with ironbark. My agent in Melbourne sent me a wire that 

 the inspector for the Harbour Trust had rejected all the box. I at once saw 

 Mr. Ednie Brown, got letters from him, went to Melbourne, showed the letters 

 to the chairman of the Harbour Trust, and got their inspector to give the 

 brush box a trial asking him to place it alongside either karri or jarrah. This 

 was done. Two years after I got word that the box was the best to stand the 

 heavy traffic, having beaten all other timber. Surely that was good enough. 

 I have made use of brush box for both flooring and lining boards, and have 

 proved that white ants will not touch it, while other timbers alongside have 

 been destroyed, and there are other scrub woods equally good. (W. T. Pullen, 

 Woolgoolga.) 



A few years ago Scrub Box was described as firewood. It is most valuable 

 for many purposes, and though on account of its having to be dressed green, it 

 warps too much for " tongue and groove " boards, it is very good for weather- 

 boards. (A. W. Deane, L.S., Lisinore.) 



The following interesting letter by Mr. D. A. Rogers, timber merchant, 

 contains useful notes in regard to the Brush Box: 



When in Glasgow 1 made strict inquiry, together with inspection, of the 

 various systems adopted by the corporation, and, no doubt, as an adopted! 

 Australian, my tastes went in favour of wood of which some fair examples can 

 be found in that city: still, I was forced to admit that climatic conditions in 

 Glasgow were not so favourable to wood-blocking as here. Two things seemed 

 apparent to me in my inspections : first subsidence, and second decayed blocks, 

 and the reasons I naturally attributed were subsidence, due to imperfect or 

 insufficient bedding, or heavier traffic than has to be contended with in Sydney ; 

 decay of blocks, imperfect knowledge of the hardwoods used; and an admix- 

 ture of the blocks cut from logs that had passed the stage of maturity, and 

 only required a damp and humid atmosphere to hasten decomposition. The 

 decaying blocks pointed out were said to be jarrah, and knowing our colonial 

 mahogany which is simply the former with another State name I had no- 

 difficulty in stating that like conditions would apply with either timber under 

 similar conditions, and recommended there, as I also do here, "Brush Box" 

 as the very best of all paving timbers, in so far as it is unrivalled in durability 

 underground, while in most atmospheres it has little contraction, and main- 

 tains a soft-springy surface unequalled with any other timber with which I am 

 acquainted. Baltic is used in many parts, is cheaper than hardwood, but on 

 sanitary grounds is an undesirable element in street formation. An objection 

 to Australian hardwoods in street-blocking is their density and greasiness in 

 ordinary weather, which is tenfold intensified with the first approach of frost 



