NEW ZEALAND TIMBEES 
239 
and inside work, it is especially adapted and much used 
for church work. As sleepers it is stated to have a life of 
fifteen years on the track. There is a good deal of resin 
in the wood ; it is very inflammahle and very durable. 
Kauri pine brings a good price in the London market, and 
owing to the great use made of this timber locally, the 
amount exported, and still more the amount destroyed by 
fire, the kauri forest will probably be extinct in from ten to 
fifteen years. 
Weight 30 to 39 lbs. per cubic foot. 
Totara {Podocarpus totara), one of the most durable of 
New Zealand timbers, is a tree of rapid growth. The 
timber is useful in marine work, resisting the teredo much 
better than jarrah in Auckland Harbour. Used largely for 
bridge work ; straight, smooth, close and silky in grain, it 
resembles pencil cedar. The colour varies from brown to 
rich red. There is a good deal of sap wood of a straw colour 
in most trees. It is considered equally durable as kauri 
pine in house construction, but more difficult to work ; it is 
usually employed in the colony for patterns. It is also said 
to make good paving blocks, as it is not slippery and wears 
down evenly, and is admirable for heavy construction work 
and for railway sleepers, furniture, etc. The heart of totara 
is exclusively used for telegraph poles in New Zealand, 
which have an average life of about twenty years. The 
Maoris used it for dug-out canoes. Some of the timber 
has beautiful markings, and a large trade is done in 
veneers. Its price in the colony is a little more than 
that of kauri. A good deal of this timber, in planks, is 
now being imported into Great Britain. 
Weight about 35 lbs. per cubic foot. 
Black Maire {Olea cmvningliamu) is a hard, dense, tough, 
close-grained, and very heavy timber of a deep brown colour 
