CUTTING SILVER PINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15035, 3 July 1912, Page 12

CUTTING SILVER PINE.

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NEW MILL AT HOROPITO.

The Silver Pino Timber Company's sawmill, opened at Horopito on June 21, is the nwfc sawmill erected in the North Island for the special purpose of cutting silver pine timber. The Silver Pine Timber Company acquired about 3000 acres of bush some time ago, and of this a large amount is silver pine. The mill will draw supplies from this area, and will be kept busy for some years to come. Tho mill is about a mile away from the station, and access is gained by means of a good road. Silver pine is a timber little known in the North Island, except in connection with its -use as railway sleepers. On the west coast of tho South Island there is still a fairly largo quantity of silver pine; but it has been practically cut out in districts served by the railways.. The only large areas of silver pino bush on the West Coast are those- in South Westland, and, on account of the high market price of this timber, even the South Westland areas are being worked m spite of transport difficulties. The silver pine in the vicinity of Horopito 19 said tto be the only known timber of that kind in the North Island. The timber is highly valued on account of its lasting properties,' and because it is the only timber in New Zealand which is absolutely proof against the attacks of the borer. For the latter reason, it. is a favourite with makers of furniture and it combines this virtue with many others. It is a, hard, brittle, > fine-grained timber. and takes a splendid polish and is largely used in the making of high-claes furniture. The mottled silver pino has no equal for beauty and it greatly enhances the prico of the furniture in which it is used. The ?: sfc ,Tt to which a good silver pine tree should bo put is to its conversion into telegraph poles and sleepers. It i s essentially a cabinet-makers timber, and should be used as such. Unlike the other New Zealand pines, tho silver pino does not attain any great size, and trees of three feet in diameter aro very .rare. There has been an enormous waste of silver pine in New Zealand, as most of tho sleepers and telegraph poles have hitherto been hewn When this method is resorted to there are no offcuto to bo utilised, as all the timber not required m tho pole or deeper is hewn away with a broadaxe. The railway and postal authorities havo encouraged this waste by paying high prices for hewn sleepers and poles, with the result that a large portion of every tree out of which sleepers have been hewn is left in the bush under the form of heaps of chips It is not a good milling timber; but it is not so hard to work as to . warrant wasteful methods of converting it into sleepers and * telegraph poles. It is, therefore, refreshing to find that . les3 extravagant methods are to be employed.