OUR MANUKA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 37, 13 February 1937, Page 11

OUR MANUKA.

UNIVERSAL PROVIDER.

SPLENDID SIGHT THIS YEAR. A SUBSTITUTE FOR TEA. Visitors to the Dominion marvel a* the almost countless awes of manuka through which they pass in their travels, and at the übiquity of this plant, which grows in almost any situation. Australians see one of our species scattered singly in the scrub of their own country, but the pure forests of manuka which occur here fill them with surprise. This year the blossoming of the big flowered manuka through the centre of the North. Island provides a wonderful sight. We surely are to be envied our possession of such a universally useful typo of scrub which can supply so many human needs, from a substitute for the "cup that cheers" to the provision of house blocks. Growing en masse the manuka provides an efficient plant covering as a barrage against the threatened erosion of exposed slopes; where lire has passed a year or two sees a thick green cover springing up to clothe the dry. open scars of the landscape; but, unlike gorse, the manuka acts as a kindly nurse, and,beneath its protection in the diffused shade there springs up a new generation of bush species which otherwise could not survive the early exposure in the open.

In former days manuka, with totara, was one of the plants most used by the Maoris. The outer bark was used to thatch houses, and fine strips of b?.rk for the first kindling of fire by the nibbing process. The fencing stockade utilised the long stems of manuka, and for less serious uses the natives employed the leaves to scent their toilet oil. Tn present times manuka forms part of the stock-in-trade of the settlor. He uses it for fencing posts and rails, for wheel spokes and cogs; while its resistance to teredo attack makes this timber most useful for small marine piles. Jlamifca is also used freely as firewood.