Bram.—On the Building Materials of Otago. 159 
posts were removed to be replaced by iron ones. Black pine, however, does 
not stand the ravages of the marine worm as well as totara. The retaining 
wallat Rattray-street, erected in 1867 and recently removed, had been at- 
tacked, though so far from the open ocean. 
Black pine and totara contain a resinous matter that resists the adhesion 
of paint when the timber is green. This property, which builders consider 
a serious objection, is, in reality, a great recommendation, for it promotes 
seasoning. 
I have in this paper adhered to the popular name of black pine for this 
timber, but the native name matai, which is always used in the North, is 
becoming common in Otago also. I trust it will soon completely supersede 
the former. 
No. 5. White Pine—Podocarpus dacrydioides. Although more gregarious 
than the other pines, this tree is found associated with its congeners in all 
the sub-alpine forests of Otago. It grows freest in low swampy see but 
the best timber is produced on moderately dry soil. 
White pine grows to a height of from 120 to 150 feet, with a trunk up 
to seventy feet long and five feet in diameter at the base. One log lately 
examined on the Orepuki railway measured fifty-five feet in length, five 
feet in diameter at the butt, with three feet of solid heart-wood, and three 
feet in diameter at the top, with one foot of heart. At Catlin river the 
average dimensions of trunk is forty feet long, and from two feet six inches 
to four feet in diameter, the largest trees having about two feet of heart. 
As arule there is seldom more than two or three inches of heart-wood in 
trees under three feet in diameter, and the difference between heart and 
sap-wood is in all cases very indistinct. The shape of the tree, colour of 
bark, and appearance generally are somewhat like black pine. Still there 
is little difficulty in distinguishing them when growing, and the difference 
in the wood is greater than between any other two of the pines. In conse- 
quence of the evenness of the colour, and the closeness of the annual rings, 
it is difficult to estimate the age of white pine. Ordinary-sized trees pro- 
bably reach maturity in from 870 to 600 years. Young trees are easily 
transplanted and cultivated. They shoot about eighteen inches per annum. 
Old trees have a slight heart crack, but it is too small to be considered a 
defect. 
The sap-wood of white pine is of a dull white colour, and the heart-wood 
of a pale yellow or straw colour. It is the weakest and lightest of the 
native building timbers tested at the New Zealand Exhibition. Still its 
strength is about ten per cent. greater than that of European red deal and 
English elm, and its weight is much the same as the former. The wood is 
straight grained, soft, flexible, and not given to warping or excessive shrink- 
