RAVAGES OF THE BORER

Southland Times, Issue 19311, 1 August 1924, Page 8

RAVAGES OF THE BORER

NEED FOR PRESERVATIVES. In the July issue of the New Zealand Industrial Bulletin, Mr G. A. Gamman contributes an article on the subject of preserving timber against the ravages of the wood borer, of which there are numerous varieties, all doing great destruction to dwellings and furniture. The New Zealand soft woods are mostly affected, these being white pine, ordinary building rimu and matai, tawa, and various other timber. The time seems to have arrived, writes Mr Gamman, when it would pay to treat these woods chemically to make them immune to the attacks of the borer. Though the soft woods are mostly attacked, the heart timbers are not altogether free from the ravages of these destructive insects. In fact one particular beetle or grub —Ambeodontus tristis, a native of New Zealand, the lesser “Huhu”— appears recently to show a decided preference for heart timbers.

“When we realise that in our rimu tree about two-thirds of the cut is ordinary building timber against one-third of heart wood, one can see at a glance that the greatest part of the timber is subject to the borer, and it would be of great ®ue to the community if this timber couflFbe made free from attack. “We will take for example the State sawmill at Frankton Junction. This mill was put in to cut timber for the Government requirements, and its requirements are for heart timber. So that this mill is producing two-thirds of its timber of inferior quality (subject to the borer), and every other sawmill cutting New Zealand timber is more or less the same.”