KAURI IN NAVY

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 264, 3 August 1932, Page 8

KAURI IN NAVY

Wood First Used in 1820 PUZZLING CABLEGRAM The cabled news that the Admiralty has placed kauri and spotted gum on its authorised list of woods that may be used in ships of his Majesty’s Navy has not caused any undue excitement among Auckland timber millers, says the “Star.” They cannot quite make out what the cable means. As one manager put it, the Admiralty was using kauri before New Zealand was a British colony. We have it on the authority of the late Mr. T. Cheeseman, the famous botanist, that “ in 1820 the Admiralty dispatched two naval store ships to obtain cargoes of kauri for experimental purposes.” The late Sir D. E. Hutchins, who was in charge of New Zealand’s Forestry Department for some time, mentions in one of his works that kauri proved so good that some years after this experimental shipment Laslet, a noted naval constructor *to the Admiralty, came out to New Zealand to see the famous timber in its native habitat That was before the British flag had been hoisted at Waitangi. Although kauri was known to the Admiralty so many years ago, it is possible that it was not placed on the official list of timbers permitted to be used, and that the omission has now been remedied, the Australian hardwood spotted gum being recognised at the same time. It is not thought in Auckland that the mills will have to work overtime filling Admiralty orders for kauri.