Forest Service is looking for a monument to historic Pinus radiata

Press, 20 December 1986, Page 22

Forest Service is looking for a monument to historic Pinus radiata

By

GARRY ARTHUR

The humble radiata pine is to be honoured by the Forest Service in Canterbury to celebrate New Zealand’s 150th anniversary — our sesquicentennial — in 1990. Each conservancy is choosing a project to mark the occasion. Because the earliest plantings of Pinus radiata (or pinus insignis as it was also known) were in Canterbury in the late 1850 s, the Forest Service wants to find the oldest radiata pine building in the province to restore and preserve as a monument to the übiquitous tree. They have not found it yet, but when they do it will probably be a farm building, perhaps an old woolshed, but it could be a house. A number of houses were built entirely of untreated radiata when the timber first began to be appreciated for its many remarkable properties. A particularly striking one at Aylesbury, between Rolleston and Darfield, was unfortunately demolished only five years ago. It was built for Mr F. Sowden, more than 70 years ago, using timber grown on the property.

Mr Norman Clifton of the Forest Service says that although radiata pine used for housebuilding in those days was not treated with preservatives, the timber could survive as long as this so long as it was painted and it was not in contact with the ground. According to an article by A. H. Cockayne (son of the famous botanist, Dr Leonard Cockayne) in the Journal of Agriculture of January, 1914, Pinus radiata was first used for house-building in 1877 when John Cathcart Wason had some 27-year-old trees converted into timber. He built several houses and outbuildings at Barrhill on the south-west bank of the Rakaia, where he was trying to establish a model English village on the 8000 hectares he had bought for the purpose. “These are still standing,” wrote Cockayne in 1914, “and the timber, which has been kept

painted, is still in an excellent state, of preservation.” Cockayne called his article “The Monterey Pine,” after the part of southern California from which it comes, “the great timber tree of the future.” History has proved him right, but he was not sure at the time that people would believe him. “The statement that it is by far the most valuable and profitable timber tree that can be planted may, perhaps, not receive general acceptance,” he wrote. “Nevertheless such a statement is absolutely correct and can be amply substantiated by the results already secured in those localities where plantations have been converted into timber.” These plantations were primarily planted for shelter and windbreaks’, the timber being considered “inferior boxwood” at best. But its phenomenal growth and great yield showed that radiata would return quite large

profits and was indeed among the most valuable trees that could be planted. Cockayne said it was the advent of the travelling sawmill that started the conversion of large areas of radiata plantations in Canterbury to sawn timber for constructional purposes. “Several of these travelling mills are now annually employed luring the winter converting Pinus radiata into timber and many buildings have been erected during the past 10 years,” he wrote.

“At first the timber was used mainly for rough outbuildings, such as stables, wool-sheds and other farm buildings. During the past few years, however, many excellent residences, where Pinus radiata has taken the place of matai and rimu for all purposes except flooring, have been erected in various parts of Canterbury. “Again, during the past year

over two million feet of timber has been disposed of in Christchurch for box-making purposes, and the demand for this class of timber is so great that within a very few years all the mature plantations in the neighbourhood of the city will have been milled.”

The great argument against Pinus radiata in Cockayne’s time was that the timber was not durable. But he pointed out that the buildings erected in Canterbury showed that with ordinary care radiata, even from quite young trees, was extremely durable.

“There seems no doubt,” he wrote, “that when Pinus radiata is planted for the express purpose of yielding building timber excellent results will be obtained.”

He felt that the considerable use at last being made of radiata timber showed that the ,(unwarrantable prejudice” against it was rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

“Even if this very rapidlygrown timber should prove to be inferior from the point of view of durability, the use of timber preservatives should remove the only possible objection that can be raised against the planting of such a tree.”

Radiata pine plantations being milled in Canterbury in 1914 were yielding an average of 100,000 ft of timber from an acre of 30-year-old trees. “This is a very large yield,” Cockayne wrote, “and greatly exceeds the final crop that is taken off any European planted forest of more than double the age. “In fact, it is almost incredible to believe that such large yields are possible in such a short space of time, were they not being actually obtained at the present time.” He predicted that trees planted at about 650 to the acre would produce 60,000 ft to 90,000 ft of timber to the acre within 20 years of planting. The Forest Service says he has been proved right about the volume of timber, although this would not be realisable in sawn boards because of the thin stems resulting from such close planting. Cockayne wrote his article soon after, the Royal Commissioh on Forestry, set up in 1913, had recommended increased planting of exotic species to meet New Zealand’s long-term timber needs in view of the rapid depletion of the native forests.

as Cockayne said, the radiata pine has proved to be New Zealand’s most economically important tree. Since large-scale planting began in the 19205, vast areas of poorer land have been converted to State and private pine plantations, and it is predicted radiata will earn more than $lOOO million a year in foreign exchange by the turn of the century.