JARRAH OR BLUEGUM

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4960, 25 February 1937, Page 8

JARRAH OR BLUEGUM

POWER BOARD INTERESTED The substitution of bluegum for jarrah in a consignment of hardwood timber ordered from Australia was referred to at the last meeting of the Te Awamutu Power Board, the secretary-manager reporting having referred the matter to the New South Wales Forestry Department for investigation. Mr Lethbridge said the Board, as with other power boards, had paid for its experience years ago, and rightly refused now tp accept substitutions —even of timber claimed to be “just as good” or better. He added that there were two commercial species of bluegum—one quite good for the Board purposes and the other useless. The Australian contractors must not be allowed to “work off” inferior timber on to power boards. The manager said he had referred the whole matter to the New South Wales Forestry Department, and expected to have a reply in time for the next meeting. He added that while in Sydney two years ago he had conferred with a forestry official of wide experience on values of different timber, and had seen small sample blocks of most commercial timbers grown in Australia. Students were required to be able to identify all the samples.