NEW ZEALAND AND TASMANIAN TIMBER.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3189, 3 May 1871, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND AND TASMANIAN TIMBER.

The " New Zealand Herald" has the following remarks on jSTew Zealand v. Tasmanian timber : — We have frequently had occasion to call attention to the difference existing in the qualities of the New Zealand and Tasmanian timber. At one time a great deal of the latter was used in the construction of other public and other \vork6 ; and for some time it was thought that nothing could beat the bluegum of Van Dieman's Land, the importation of which was continued at a great expense, un account, of course, of its alleged superiority. When the Queen street wharf was built, the majority of the piles used were of this wood, while some of the New Zealand totara piles were. also used. It was found in the course of a few years that the Tasmanian timber was completely worm-eaten and rotten, while the New Zealand timber remained almost as hard as when first put down. Most of the bad piles were, therefore taken up and New Zealand wood and partly of Tasmanian. As in the other case, the Tasmanian was very goon thoroughly worn out and at the present time the planking of the wharf consists wholly of native wood. When the farthest T was added to the wharf, some after the construction of the old wharf, and before the respective qualities of the wood were rightly knosvn and appreciated, o portion of the piles were of indigenous wood ; a portion of them were the Tasmanian blue-gum These latter were all sheathed with copper, with the exception of the lower ends, which were driven into the mud. The copper reached to within a foot or so of th.a river bed when the pile was drivf3n home. This foot of uncoppered wood in e^ery pile is now utterly destroyed by the ravages of the minute won:: which infests this harbor, and it is found necessary, if the firmness of the outer T is to be maintained, to remove the piles and substitute others in their stead. We may state that the totara piles driven down alongside the others at the same time are in no way destroyed, thus affording proof — if uny further proof were really wanted— of the vastly superior quality of the New Zealand over the Tasmanian timber. We do trust that the public are now fully convinced upon this point, and that there will be no more of this expensive and almost useless (for harbor purposes) wood imported into this country, when such a vastly superior article is to be found at our own doors.