NEW ZEALAND FURNITURE WOODS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 5, Issue 244, 18 July 1861, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND FURNITURE WOODS.

(From the Daily Neves, March 25, 1861.)

The comparatively recent settlement of New Zealand and its great distance from £urope have contributed hitherto to keep us in a great degree ignorant of many of its minor resources. Timber available for the purposes of the carpenter or the. upholsterer is under ordinary circumstances far too heavy and bulky an article to bear the cost of a voyage half round; the globe as a raw material; and until therefore our Australasian colonies become so far advanced as to be enabled to export their ligneous products in a manufactured state it is more than probable that our acquaintance with them will continue to be extremely limited. That New Zealand posesses many advantages over many of our other colonial dependencies as regards the abundance of its indigenous timber trees is well known, and some of them (it is said the great majority) are admirably suited to the manufacture of cabinet work, both of the useful and ornamental descriptions. One of these trees is the Totara, which fgrows in great plenty in the extensive New Zealand forests-—rises in a straight tall stem to a height of 50 or 60 feet, and attains a diameter of from three to five feet. The wood of this tree is hard, tough, closely grain ed, beautifully variegated, and when polished of a colour and ‘ pattern ’ something between the birdVeye-maple and walnut. Mr. Leviere, the upholsterer, of Z)avies-street, Gros-venor-square, vvho as one of the earliest New Zealand settlers - takes a special interest in these products, has several specimens of this and other of the native woods manufactured into tables, cabinets, sideboards, and other articles pertaining to the drawing-room, dining room, boudoir. Amongst them is a sideboard designed for the King of Prussia, and which previous to embarkation, is on view at his factory. This being composed of carefully selected veneers and blocks; presents a most favourable example of the adaptability of Totara to ornamental upholstery, and fully justifies Mr. Leviere in his attempt, which has met with encouragement from the royal family of this country, as well as that of Prussia, to render the veneers and timbers of bis former home popular in Europe. It is stated that the cost of these woods here is about the same as that of the better sorts of mahogany.