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Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2742, 22 February 1910, Page 2

Aii evil that has been allowed to prorood uncliocikc’d lor many years is tnc excessive consumption of first class hardwoods for railway sleepers, says the Melbourne “Argus.'’ In their desire to prolong the life. of sleepers in the roadbed the railway engineers have for vears adopted a high specification, for this class' of timber, confining all. contracts to red ironbark, grey box, and red gum. The inijnen.se waste of serviceable timber that this system involves was not noticed while largo supplies of these valuable hardwoods existed, but the inroads of the pasttwenty years havo at last so diminished the supplies that a change- of' method is imperative. The Conservator of Forests, Mr. Mackey, considers that in the interests both of the Railway and Forest Departments, a fair proportion of secondary timbers, such as stringy bark, messmate, blue gum, and grev box ' must be used for this line material. Mhe employment of secondary timbers for sleepers in crosscountry lines would enable the Forest Departmen to husband the present supplies of reel gum and box for those lines which carry express and heavy weight traffic. It would be possible to prolong the life of sleepers cut from secondary hardwoods by installing a plant- for injecting these with preservative matter. American and European railways have long used creosote for this purpose, 'while Western Australia, although she has still large sullies of jar rah. has begun to employ the Powellising process, which consists of steeping the in a hath oi molasses raised to boiling point.