THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10625, 21 March 1896, Page 3

THE TIMBER INDUSTRY.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,—Qn reading in the Otago Daily Times and Witness newspapers the various opinions aa to the growth and growing scarcity of totara and the possibility of the supply becoming still shorter, it occurs to me that altogether too much is made of it. This timber, alike with other commodities, takes its place commercially in reckoning and adaptation to the country. This bsing so, it is needless to say that New Zealand Fodocarpns totara is by no means an unknown tree, as already shown, while tested in contradistinction with others.

It is well to bear in .mind that the long period which elapses before assuming any size suited even for ordinary purposes precludes it from ranking with others whose growth is in the ratio o f 5 to 1 as compared with the California redwood, Taxodium sempervirens, commonly known as the sequoia or pencil cedar. As to the distribution of totara by cuttings, or the removal of the sraall seedlings from forest for replanting, I think the less said on this point the better, a» such labour' presents insuperable difficulties from a payable point of view, apart from being next to impossible in practice.

There is an abun dance of other trees of economic value elsewhere to choose from which grow and ripen their seeds for reproduction in a very few years in New Zealand ; and this being so, why trouble with totara, already placed beyond the experimental stage by men of experience? For instance, the oak (Qaercus robar) and varieties grow and ripen acorns to germinate in their fifth year from the seedling stage, making wood from two feet upwards annually. The redwood of California alao averages upwards of two feet, even in the eariy stage of growth. It also ahoots up freely from the stool, like the oak. Mr Freyberg may have meant this tree, which is distichous in leaf, like the yew, for which it is readily mistaken by even skilled workmen.

Kahikatea, or white pine, has been under experiment for many years, but, like totara, indigenous to New Zealand, will never pay to reproduce it; in shore, the same may be said in regard to the culture generally of New Zealand ferees in the Forestry department.

It is only when trees are grown in sheltered positions in quantity or clumps that their growth and value eau be estimated. This is readily noticeable in regard to the eucalypti and scacia or wattle species, which though of rapid growth possess properties as to durability and hardness peculiarly their own.

The varied soils of Now Zealand will grow almost any kind of timber by the selection of locality, and this being so, why not have the most payable, and those whose returns come within measurable distance of the existing generation ? Tress, iiira the aborigines of the country, give way.

The rotation to be adopted in New Zealand would vary from that of Great Britain, with the exception of a very small portion, inasmuch as plants of all kinds, p.ro of more rapid growth. I am, &e.. March 17. J. M'B.