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 and toughness, but it could only be preserved by frequent painting.

(b) Another mountain variety produced a blood-red wood, so interlocked in the grain that it could rarely be split. A useful and durable timber, and one of the best of the varieties of Totara.

(c) Another mountain variety with red wood, and having very little sap. This timber is heavy, and is the strongest of all the Totara family.

(d) The best and most generally useful of all the Totaras has a good deal of sap, a very thick bark, and pinkish coloured wood. This tree was generally straight in the grain, and could be split like a match. It was useful, therefore, amongst other things, for roofing shingles.

(e) The “pipey” or “honeycomb” variety, which could only be used for fencing.

I have known Totara posts to be in the ground for sixty years, and were then so sound that they were shifted into other fences.

It is a dangerous wood for firewood, because of its tendency to spark.

Matai, or Black Pine, is another useful wood. It is capital for house-building, being