100,000-YEAR-OLD WOOD

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28491, 22 January 1958, Page 13

100,000-YEAR-OLD WOOD

Deposit Found In Wellington “The Press” Special Service WELLINGTON, January 21. A deposit of wood which, experts believe, has passed the age of 100,000 years, was discovered recently by workmen on the construction site of the new departmental building in Bowen street, Wellington. An officer of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research said that from the depth at which the “hunk of wood” was lying, and the constitution of the soil beds above, it was estimated that the find was more than 100.000 years old. “It was quite beyond the range of the carbon 14 tests, which were applied to it, and which can backdate to 50.0Q0 years,” he said. According to an employee of the firm engaged on the job of excavating the site, the wood was found at a depth of 26 feet. It had reached a condition very nearly like that of coal. During the next three years, a 14-floor departmental building will rise on the site. The cost is estimated at £1,000,000. Work on the excavations has been proceeding throughout the holiday period, and has reached a stage where the pouring of concrete foundations may be begun at the northern end this week. . The excavation at present in progress will extend .to 28 feet below road level, and will be sufficient to contain two basement floors in the new structure. Concrete walls in the old fish pond are still being blasted with gelignite, and the steel reinforcing gas-cut into manageable lengths. Labour force on the project consists of about 20 men, which is sufficient to operate the machines at this stage.