KAURI TIMBER. 21) 
black, and a soft kind from Tairua.* Abstracts from his paper have 
been quoted since. I[ think the original worth reproducing ;— 
(1.) Red is the best general building-timber, close-grained and very durable 
for Kauri, but rather gummy, and shrinking and warping badly. A 40 ft. beam 
has been known to shrink 1} in, in length, and a weatherboard #in. in 20 ft.; so 
that Red Kauri should be used for beams or framing, but not for joiners’ work. 
(2.) White is tough, stronger than Red but not so durable; a good timber 
for joiners’ work, since the endways shrinking is almost nil, and it does not warp 
after a fair amount of seasoning. Largely used by boat-builders on account of 
its bending well. 
(3.) Black comes from the west coast, It is only fit for rough work, is heavy 
with gum, and the most durable of Kauri timbers. It is thought that for fencing 
it lasts as long as Puriri. 
(4.) The soft kind from Tairua is (he timber for joiners’ work and mouldings. 
It is reputed to be quite free from shrinking and warping. . . . If this and 
White Kauri only were used for joiners’ work we should seldom hear of ruined 
ceilings or twisted doors and sashes. This kind of Kauri is only found in the 
Tairua district. 
In the subsequent discussion of the four classes of Kauri a doubt was. 
expressed whether these classes depended on location or age. (Trans. 
N.Z. Inst., 1855.) Kirk in his ** Forest Flora ’’ (p. 146) discusses this 
point. There seems little reason to question Kirk’s opinion that, as with. 
New Zealand Mahogany (Kohekohe) and some other trees, there are 
degrees of lignification, or heartwood formation, in Kauri timber, and 
that (2) and probably (4) of Bartley’s classification represent young 
partially lignified heartwood, ‘Then follows the important point that 
the ‘‘ Kauri tree of the future’ in the cultivated forest, a tree of 2 ft. 
diameter or a little more, will represent just the most valuable sort of 
Kauri timber for joinery and furniture, the common purpose for which 
Kauri timber is wanted. 
Campbell-Walker cites a case of young immature Kauri lasting as 
sleepers better than ‘lotara, 
Kaurr Sapwoop ann HRartTwoop. 
As Good for Export.—It has been stated that Kauri sapwood was as 
good as heartwood indoors. That is correct in countries where wood- 
borers do not abound, and. as the White-pine borer does not survive 
in Australia, which is the chief outside market for Kauri (and furniture 
is the great use for Kauri there), the statement that Kauri sapwood is 
as good as Kauri heart has much truth in it, (See also p. 73.) 
As Good for New Zealand, with Better Building.—And the statement 
may be true for New Zealand when builders decide on spending £15 
or £20 extra on treating with a zinc salt all sawn and planed timber 
before it goes into a house. It has been estimated that tank or brush 
treatment with an antiseptic would not run to more than this for a six- 
roomed wooden house. It would get rid of borer, with its danger to 
furniture, and it might prolong the average life of a wooden house from 
thirty or forty years to the indefinite time it has in other countries; while 
after a time the borer might disappear, as have some other house-pests 
with better-kept houses ! 
How Good at Present.—The Hon. E, Mitchelson, who has had the- 
experience of a lifetime in the practical use of Kauri timber, has given 
me his opinion that if Kauri timber 1s brought in and sawn up quickly, 


* The Tairua River tapped the Kauri in the heart of the Coromandel Peninsula, 
where the bull of the area required for the future Kauri industry of New Zealand is to- 
be found (p. 4). 
