WAR-TIME USE OF TIMBER

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23411, 19 August 1941, Page 8

WAR-TIME USE OF TIMBER

* — REPLACING IMPORTED MATERIAL

NEW ZEALAND WOODS AS SUBSTITUTES

The use of New Zealand timbers for munitions work, and the replacement of imported timbers by _ home-grown products, are referred to, m the annual report of the State Forest Service which refers also to the unexpected war-time demand for insigms pme. The report states that with improved kilndrying practices, and the development of successful protection treatments against insect and fungal attack, some New Zealand-grown timbers are. now finding a much wider use than previously as all time substitutes for ims' Taw.,""? ot «. wide distrl. bution. is of considerable importance as a substitute for imported oak, especially for furniture, fittings, and interior finishings. It also promises to rank as a major plywood timber. Silver beech, which ranks first m production amongst the indigenous hardwoods. also commands the widest field of use. Many of its qualities are such as to commend it for numerous specialist purposes, amongst them/for rifle-stocks and even ior certain classes of pattern work. It is anticipated that as munitions production extends throughout the Empire substantial quantities will be required for such work in both Australia and New Zealand, perhaps even in Great Britain, to which one shipment was made last year at special request of the hardwood timber controller., • ■ Insignis pine, under the impact of war conditions, has already attained an importance both unique and unexpected. No other timber is filling so many roles or substituting for so many timbers ’in so many fields of use. Except for those few foodstuff containers stich as butter-boxes in which freedom from taint is essential, insignis pine has already gained an unassailable preeminence in the boxing-and crating industry. In the building field its most spectacular achievement has been the replacement of Californian redwood and North American western red cedar for flush-door cores and frames. The most recent war-time demand has been for peeler logs both for plywood and for the manufacture of wooden match splints and match-box skillets. In munition work it is being employed for ammunition boxes, grenade cases, and motor boxes. “Other woods are of only war-time significance in that they are either not very suitable although in plentiful supply,; or very suitable but In extremely limited supply. Rimu and miro together with red and hard beech fall in the first category when re- 1 quired for use as large structural tim - bers in place of imported Australian hardwoods and North American Douglas fir. The same comment applies to red and hard beech for railway sleepers and to rimu and matai for cheese-crate battens. "Typical of the second category are tanekaha when required for aeronautical construction; manuka, kowhal. and mangeao for various classes of handles: black maire as, a substitute for Lignum vitae for guide blocks in log. frames: totara. silver pine, and maire for railway sleepers; and silver pine kawaka. and creosoted larch for telegraph and power poles. - “Small as the contribution may appear in the case of individual timbers, the accumulative, effect is a substantial one not merely in conserving exchange funds for munitions.purchases, but in maintaining essential public services and expediting the local war effort.” ________