Moxno.— Geographical Botany of Nelson and Marlborough. 169 
of great wealth to it. They furnish food for multitudes of cattle and 
several millions of sheep, and they are probably not yet stocked to more 
than one-third of their capability. 
In an economic point of view, the chief trees of the South Island are 
the red and white pine, respectively called by the Maoris, the former 
the mai or matai (Podocarpus spicata),* the latter the kahikatea (Podocar- 
pus daerydioides). These trees furnish the timber which is chiefly 
used in the framework of houses. The mai furnishes the more valuable 
wood of the two, harder, more durable, and more ornamental; and it is 
accordingly used in those parts of the structure where durability and 
strength are chiefly required, as in wall-plates and joists. The white pine 
yields a softer wood, easily worked, atid of great utility for inner work 
and situations in which it is not exposed to damp. It is asserted, and I 
believe correctly, that this timber is much more durable and in every 
respect more valuable in the South Island than in the North, owing in all 
probability to the difference of climate. For doors and window sashes the 
wood that is commonly used is that of the totara (Podocarpus totara). 
This is an exceedingly valuable timber. In appearance it is somewhat like 
cedar. It works with equal freedom, and, according to the testimony of the 
Maoris and the experience of the settlers, it resists the evil effects of damp 
better than any other timber with which we are acquainted. Where 
abundant and easily obtained, it is preferred for every part of a wooden 
house with the exception of those portions in which strength and toughness 
are the qualities chiefly sought for, for the totara is rather a brittle wood. 
In the older trees, large warty excrescences are frequently met with, which, 
when cut into, have a highly variegated and mottled appearance. These are 
in great request among furniture makers, the wood being very much 
Not only is the totara sought for by the sawyer to be cut into 
boards and scantling, but the men who split fencing for agricultural pur- 
poses prefer it to every other wood. There is no other timber in New 
Zealand which rends before the wedge with such facility and truth; 
and no description of timber stands so well in the ground as the heart 
of totara. In consequence of its splitting properties, it is the timber 
out of which all the best and most durable roofing shingles are made. By 
the Maoris the totara has always been recognized as one of the most useful 
of the forest trees. It is of this tree that their largest canoes are made, the 
tree being felled in the forest, it may be at a very considerable distance from 
the beach, and, when hollowed out, dragged down into what the penny-a- 
* Black rue of Otago, Hook. f.; matai, black rue or black pine in Otago, Hector ; 
miro, often confounded with black pine, Balfour; mataii, Colenso ; mai or matai, Taylor. 
—ED. 
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