CHAPTER IX 



TIMBERS OF NEW ZEALAND AND TASMANIA 



NEW ZEALAND : Kauri Pine Totara Black Maire Kimu Matai 

 Kahikatea or White Pine Silver Pine Puriri Beeches Miro 

 Rata Honeysuckle. 



TASMANIA : Blue Gum Stringy Bark Ash or Swamp Gum Gum 

 Top Stringy Bark Ironbark Peppermint Black wood Huon 

 Pine Celery Top Pine King William Pine Beech or Myrtle 

 Tea Tree Honeysuckle Leatherwood, Lancewood, etc. Oaks 

 Government Specification for Eucalyptus Timber. 



NEW ZEALAND TIMBERS. 



Kauri Pine (Agatliis australis) is the best known of the 

 New Zealand timbers and is indeed the chief timber of the 

 colony. It is yellowish white in colour, straight in grain, 

 with a silky lustre on the surface, and is easily worked. It 

 is light, fairly strong and elastic ; amongst the pines it is 

 only exceeded in strength by pitch pine and Baltic red- 

 wood. It is generally remarkably free from knots and 

 defects, and may be obtained perfectly clear of them. It 

 can be had in planks nearly 3 ft. wide in the colony a 

 piece has been got 20 ft. long by 5 ft. wide absolutely clear 

 of knots and shakes, and only recently pieces were to be 

 had in the London market 18 ft. long and 50 inches wide 

 and practically perfect. The timber requires to be seasoned 

 before being put into use, as it shrinks considerably. In 

 one case where it was used on the deck of a vessel it 

 had in twelve months shrank considerably both longi- 

 tudinally and cross ways. Good for all classes of joinery 



