Page:Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute - Volume 1 (2nd ed.).djvu/203

Rh of great wealth to it. They furnish food for multitudes of cattle and several millions of sheep, and they are probably not yet stocked to more than one-third of their capability.

In an economic point of view, the chief trees of the South Island are the red and white pine, respectively called by the Maoris, the former the mai or matai (Podocarpus spicata), the latter the kahikatea (Podocarpus dacrydioides). These trees furnish the timber which is chiefly used in the framework of houses. The mai furnishes the more valuable wood of the two, harder, more durable, and more ornamental; and it is accordingly used in those parts of the structure where durability and strength are chiefly required, as in wall-plates and joists. The white pine yields a softer wood, easily worked, and of great utility for inner work and situations in which it is not exposed to damp. It is asserted, and I believe correctly, that this timber is much more durable and in every respect more valuable in the South Island than in the North, owing in all probability to the difference of climate. For doors and window sashes the wood that is commonly used is that of the totara (Podocarpus totara). This is an exceedingly valuable timber. In appearance it is somewhat like cedar. It works with equal freedom, and, according to the testimony of the Maoris and the experience of the settlers, it resists the evil effects of damp better than any other timber with which we are acquainted. Where abundant and easily obtained, it is preferred for every part of a wooden house with the exception of those portions in which strength and toughness are the qualities chiefly sought for, for the totara is rather a brittle wood. In the older trees, large warty excrescences are frequently met with, which, when cut into, have a highly variegated and mottled appearance. These are in great request among furniture makers, the wood being very much admired. Not only is the totara sought for by the sawyer to be cut into boards and scantling, but the men who split fencing for agricultural purposes prefer it to every other wood. ‘There is no other timber in New Zealand which rends before the wedge with such facility and truth; and no description of timber stands so well in the ground as the heart of totara. In consequence of its splitting properties, it is the timber out of which all the best and most durable roofing shingles are made. By the Maoris the totara has always been recognized as one of the most useful of the forest trees. It is of this tree that their largest canoes are made, the tree being felled in the forest, it may be at a very considerable distance from the beach, and, when hollowed out, dragged down into what the penny-a-

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