The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-10-23
oHIA WOOD INDUSTRY.

| Ten years ago or more, George
MUMMY, manager of the Enterprise
! Planning Mill of this city, while in the
| Hopper planning mill in Honolulu, was
given a job to turn down some oak
! telephone pins that were too large, and
as he did so he discovered that just
/ under the coating of metallic paint the
| pins were rotting and in some instances
worm-eaten; they looked TO him as if
| they were made of material that would
not stand the weather of this country.
Shortly afterward he came to Hilo and
established himself down on Front
street near Minch 8 place and began
business getting out woodwork for the
carpenters and contractors.
Among the debris around the mill
was a piece or two of wood which on
examination appeared to be suitable
for the pins. The wood proved to be
ohia and he soon had his lathe in posi-
ton and made a few pins as an expert
ment. These were turned over to the
local telephone company and put into
service. They proved satisfactory and
he rugged up machine capable of more
work and in short time received an
order from the telephone company for
ten thousand of them. That was about
SlSht years ago ana Is the ldSG OTu6T
he has received from the local tele-
phone company, as the pins are st1li
sound and the manager says he does
not think he viii ever have to order
any more for the reason that there
seems to be no wear out to those he
has and that they, and the samples
given him by Mr.. MUMMY a few years
before, have been in constant service
all these years.
There are railroad ties on the Waia- |
kea plantation cut from ohia that have
been IN active service for the past fif |
teen years; some of them have rotted a |
half inch on the weather side no fur
Their, and when scraped off will decay
another half inch. These ties are still |
in service. Indeed, they could not be |
taken up without difficulty, for the |
wood is so hard that it is impossible to |
draw the spikes, as impossible as it is |
to drive nail into a piece of seasoned |
oh1a. When track man wants to lay |
rail- on an ohia tie, he first bores a |
hole In the tie and then spikes it down.
On Church street, some years ago, it |
was decided to move a building to an
other part of town. When it was raised |
the sllls were found to be cut from ohia |
and though they had been close to the
SiOuid AOi years JueY were
In such good condition that they were
used under the house in its new loca-
ton. The stairs and sills of the old
Lyman homestead as well as those in
the Coan residence are of ohia and as
good today as when put in the build
lngs forty years ago. And eohia VIII
take a high polish for the grain is
fairly close, closer than oak, and will |
stand good deal more banging around.
Orders have been filed Tor these pins
from the Philippines where. it is be-
lleved, they will withstand the climate |
better than those that have been in
use there.
ITEMS.
A. Zimmerman, an O1aa pioneer cof-
fee and fruit planter, died on Tuesday
while dressing in preparation for his
daily work on his plantation. Deceased
went into Olaa and located at Mountain
view IN 1894, purchasing the property
at the time owned by w. w. Bruner
and locating his wife there while he
secured work as a sugar boiler in Ha-
makua. Later he went into Kau and
worked at the same trade for time
but continued improving his land and
adding to the area planted to coffee.
His last work as sugar boiler was
with the Hawaii Mill Co. few years
ago during the management of Mr.. Won