156 "T'ransactions.—Muiscellaneous. 
frequently resulted from the substitution of one timber for the other, their 
points of difference can scarcely be too wellknown. Miro is a fast growing 
tree, and the annual rings are tolerably distinct. A stump twenty-two inches 
diameter on Pine Hill gave the age at 160 years. There is frequently more 
sap than heart in the timber, and the distinction between the two qualities 
is not well marked, consequently it is not suitable for exposed work, even if 
durable. A log from a young miro on Pine Hill, twenty feet long eighteen 
inches diameter at the base, and twelve inches at the top, had an average of 
seven and a half inches of heart. At Catlin River the smaller trees are 
almost three-fourths sap, but the full grown ones have only from two 
to four inches. 
Aged miro has usually a crack in the heart, but it is small and straight, 
so cannot be considered a serious defect. The timber is the strongest of 
the New Zealand pines, consequently is well adapted for beams in a dry 
well ventilated situation. As it does not shrink or warp to any inordinate 
extent, it is suited for ordinary house building, but being more difficult to 
work than red pine, the latter is preferred by carpenters. Miro is not 
durable in any exposed situation, except under water. It will perish in a 
few years if in contact with damp, and is very subject to the ravages of the 
large grub, which perforates the timber to the heart. I have seen bridge 
piles at Wallacetown a perfect mass of rottenness through the latter cause, 
but the portion below water level was sound to the bark. Mr. Kirk reports 
the same state of things at the railway protective works in Bluff Harbour. 
The outside piles exposed to the influence of sea water were perfectly 
sound, but those in the embankment a few feet further in were quite rotten. 
He attributes the preservation of the former to the action of salt water, but 
the example at Wallacetown would indicate the same result in any wet 
situation. Twelve-inch miro piles in the George-street jetty, Port Chal- 
mers, erected in 1860, are eaten away to about four inches by the Limnoria, 
but are otherwise in good preservation. 
No. 3. Totara—Podocarpus totara. Totara, which is the best known 
and most easily recognized of our timber trees, is common in all the forests 
of the province up to an altitude of 1,000 feet. It is generally found mixed 
with black pine, but occasionally, as on Inch Clutha, forms an entire bush 
of itself. The supply of totara in the vicinity of Dunedin and Invercargill 
is getting scarce, but there is still a considerable quantity about the Clutha 
mouth, and the west coast supplies are still untouched. 
The timber seems to grow well on any ordinary soil, but prefers rich 
alluvial flats. Ordinary sized trees attain to a height of from sixty to 
eighty fect, with a clear straight trunk from twenty to fifty feet long and 
three to five feet in diameter; occasional trees are found up to seven and 
