Five Native Beeches In N.Z.

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31190, 14 October 1966, Page 10

Five Native Beeches In N.Z.

When thinking of beeches, think of quintuplets. The five native beeches in New Zealand are quintuplets—similar in appearance, but differing in characteristics. From three of them a substantial list of uses I can be made. I New Zealand is not the ■only country with native beeches. South America, Australia and New Guinea also ! have species of the genus nothofagus. Silver beech or nothofagus menzieri has had in the past many pet names. The early bushmen, who knew the European birch, were quick to recognise the similarity and names such as “totara birch,” “cherry birch" and “silver birch” were some that were used.

When freshly sawn, silver ■ beech sapwood, from Southland, is a pinkish-white and the heart-wood ranges from light pink to red and from the Nelson area, the heartwood is reddish-brown. Nothofagus fusyer (red beech) heartwood may be confused with silver beech. Nothofagus truncata, or hard beech heartwood, is light-pink to light brown, the sapwood being a lighter yellowish-brown. These are the three major species of the beeches. Two minor ones are black beech, nothofagus, solanderi, and mountain beech, nothofagus cliffortiodides. The sapwood is yellowish-white and the heartwood is blackish-brown on the cross-section, but some-what lighter on other faces. All the species have a fine, even and close texture and, with the advent of new drying

techniques, is not subject to checking or warping. The beeches hold their colour reasonably well when exposed to the sun, and are inclined to silver. In 1962, 49,000 board feet was exported, giving a revenue of £3OOO. But for the year ending 1965, the volume increased to 203,000 board feet, yielding £13,000. Export was mainly to Australia for speciality uses, such as furniture and cabinet making Early Uses Mining timbers have been drawn in large quantities from all the beeches and in the early days of milling, for bush tramway sleepers This tramway method was used to extract logs from the forests but now has been superseded by the introduction of tractors to haul logs Other uses that silver beech is now put to is in the domestic construction field for framing above floor level of “building a grade.” Beeches may also be used extensively elsewhere and are subjected to the terms of the national grading rules. All the beeches are ideal for flooring in the home, factory and the gymnasium, where .it is subjected to heavy use and severe exposure. The majority of our paint brush handles, broom handles and many other handles are of beech and all tooth picks made in New Zealand are of beech. Because of its ease in working it is ideal in wood turning and for dowels. It is also used extensively in the cabinet making and woodworking industries.

Because of its fine texture and soft, natural colourings, the beeches are eminently suited for panelling for a feature wall of the home and is easily stained and polished, or just polished. Heated Timber Floors The idea of incorporating electric heating cables within timber of a suspended wooden floor became a possibility in Britain about five years ago, with the development of sheathing of a high temperature P.V.C. This development involved the provision of deepened grooves in one edge and both ends of tongue-and-groove flooring boards so that the heating cable could be woven back and forth within these grooves.-

It is of vital importance to this method of floor heating that the timber used in flooring should be specially chosen for its suitability. It must have high stability, especially in relation to its moisture content, and should also have a very low rate of moisture absorption. A search among New Zealand indigenous timbers, suitable for flooring, reveals that by far the most-promis-ing among them, for the present purpose, is red beech. This species is well-known to require periods of up to two

years of air drying to reduce; it to equalibrium moisture | content. Research In the South Island a major; timber company is conducting experiments into the production of veneers for plywoods of beech. Pulping research has been concentrated on the pulping of the beeches by the I kraft and bi-sulphite processes. These will provide some of the knowledge required in! examining the utilisation of beech forests in the Nelson! region.