Maori Nature Notes
(Specially written for the “Manawatu Daily Times”) [Copyright J.H.S.] RIMU (red pine), best known of all our useful building and ornamental timbers. The heart and sap are highly resinous. In the absence of any means of making a steady portable light, (the Maori was never a night bird), the dry Rimu branches made torches for emergencies. Sap taken from a sunlit surface was regarded as an infallible remedy for sores and wounds. The timber was too hard for their stone axes; but the dead branches made a good blaz. ing fire; still the Pakeha is unaccountably prejudiced against it as a fuel. The berries are like tiny twin nuts forming a figure 8. Its leaves small, pointed, and prickly, growing on long thin branchlets. A joke upon the newcomer was to put a small twig inside his clothing, when every move caused it to creep against the fabric like a tiny snake. Of all young tress it is easily our most ornamental, especially when grown in a sheltered corner of the garden.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MT19300804.2.77
Bibliographic details
Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7295, 4 August 1930, Page 8
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175Maori Nature Notes Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7295, 4 August 1930, Page 8
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