NEW ZEALAND TIMBER IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9710, 4 January 1895, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND TIMBER IN ENGLAND.

[FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT. London, December 1. New Zealand timber looks well and seems really to have a great future before it, even allowing a good deal for the sanguine temperament of Mr. Freiberg. That he is " working like a horse" on its behalf is quite certain and it is equally certain that he is bringing the timber under the notice of the London trade in a way thab has never been tried before.

Every disposition exists to give the New Zealand woods" a thoroughly fair trial and if only the New Zealand sawmillers will condescend to act on the advice of the expert and regulate their supplies after the method which he recommends they stand a very good chance of doing well out of their shipments. But if they will nob take good advice, they will have to suffer. Unless they send Home the particular kind of stuff that the English market wants and will take they might just as well sell their wood on the spot for fuel and so save freight and charges. For the London market will only buy just what it chooses and if the timber sent does nob suit its choice what is wanted is quite well known — will not be boughb at any price. Mr. Freiberg tells me thab the first consignment of timber from the Kauri Timber Company has been received by the War Office, and has been delivered at the Woolwich Arsenal, where it is being tried for use in the construction of gun-carriages, and ammunition boxes. Experimental tests have demonstrated that the tensile strength of the New Zealand kauri is very nearly equal to thab of the besb English oak, while its weight is only half that of oak 5 and its cost also is only half that of oak. Lasb week an oak tree was sold ab auction for £26, which would have purchased double the quantity of kauri. Strength and lightness combined are essential for artillery purposes, and kauri is found to afford this valuable combination in a marked degree. To show the demand there is in England for outside timber I may mention that all the jarrah timber that Jarrahdale can ! furnish up to next August has been bought in advance for delivery, and a thousand loads have also been purchased for delivery after August next year. Also three cargoes of stringy bark wood have been sold in advance for delivery, and another contract has been made. Mr. Taylor, of Rotorua, who left last week on his return to New Zealand, was introduced by Mr. Freiberg before his departure to a leading firm of London timber merchants, and has arranged to ship home a cargo of rimu timber directly after his arrival in the colony. Many samples of New Zealand timber have been sent to various city firms, and more still are wanted.

lb is very important that timber exporters in the colony should understand and fully realize the imperative necessity of sending only •well-chosen and thoroughly sound woods. No iuferior qualities will be even looked at here. Mr. Freiberg is very anxious to have a selection of carefully prepared " merchantable" samples of New Zealand hard woods to be placed on view at the Imperial Institute and at the New Zealand AgencyGeneral. The blocks and slabs of kauri, should be 6 feet 4J inches long, 9 inches wide, and 3 inches thick. That would make each piece measure 100 feet net, and form a "New Zealand standard" of timber measurement. Of these slabs 42 would go to 1 load, and measuring would be simplified which in itself would help the trade. Much better samples must be sent Home than those arriving, which are cut very carelessly and irregularly. It is impossible to make a good wooden pavement if the blocks are of irregular size. The blocks which have iust come to London vary greatly, and the way they have been prepared is calculated to reflect great discredit on the trade and do it much harm. This careless way of doing business will not answer in London. Ib is not strange that considering the extreme importance to the New Zealand people of extending the New Zealand trade in every possible way, this should be wilfully imperilled in almost every branch by gross carelessness or incompetence? Why were those consignments of apples sent unassorted and all higgledy-piggledy, some unripe and all at sixes and sevens ? Why is so much "tallowy" or "fishy" butter sent or good butter packed in boxes of material or make known to be unsuitable and injurious ? Why are those kind? of mutton sent which it is known will not sell except at a heavy loss, and why are those metal staples still used, which have excited so loud and well-deserved a protest? And now why is inferior and badry-cub timber sent so as to risk killing a premising trade in its very inception ? I pause for a reply ! Remember, these are not merely my views, which might be worth little or nothing; they are the carefully obtained and mature opinions of the greatest living authorities on various points; of men to whose entire interest it is to encourage and push and further their trades, bub who find their efforts thwarted, and checked, and neutralised on all hands by the continual negligence or inconceivable stupidity of some of the very people they are doing their best to benefit. "O, reform it altogether," as Hamlet says. Ib is noteworthy that opposite the Kensington Town Hall some wooden paving is now being laid'dawn in which blocks of jarrah wood are used only 3£ inches thick, though they will have to carry a tremendous vehicular traffic ; and it is found that 6 inches is the least thickness of Russian pine that can stand it. Nevertheless experience has proved that 3i inches thickness of the colonial wood is ample. Consequently these woods will be able to compete very effectively with Russian and Norwegian timbers for paving purposes. Complaint has been made that certain valuable timber products, such as the eucalyptus oil—which is now imported extensively from New Zealand—often arrives in England in a considerably adulterated state. The oil should be sent in the original bottles, distinctly marked and securely fastened in such a way as to render tampering and adulteration virtually impossible without certain detection being assured.