Dammar Resin
pp. 31-32 · Read in the full issue
Possible New Industry for N. Guinea
AN industry that may be worth investigating so far as the Mandated Ter ritory of New Guinea is concerned is that of exploiting a species of Kauri pine, the Dammara (or Agathis) tree. The Dam mara tree (Agathis Orientalis) is well known in the Federal Malay States, the East Indies and India, where it produces a resin of value in manufacturing colourless varnish.
A Japanese company in recent years discovered that this tree grew in large quantities in the vicinity of Geelvink Bay, on the northern shores of Dutch New Guinea. This company obtained from the Nederlands East Indies Govern ment valuable concessions under which it proposed to export timber from this region and also the valuable Dammar resin obtained from the Agathis tree.
Believing that investigations would show that the tree grows in the Man dated Territory of New Guinea, the “Pacific Islands Monthly” made inquiries at the National Herbarium, Sydney, which controls the Botanie Gardens, where several species of the Agathis tree from the Pacific Islands are growing.
“I am of opinion that if investigations were made,” said Mr. E. Cheel, Curator of the Herbarium, “varieties of the Aga this tree, very closely related to the Kauri pines of North Queensland, Fiji, New Hebrides, the Solomons, and New Caledonia, would be found growing in the mountainous regions of New Guinea.
They would yield a gum very similar to the so-called Dammar resin.
“At the end of last century, the Ger man botanists made a very thorough examination of the lower forms of New Guinea flora, the valuable results of which were subsequently published. The scientists were still engaged on the tre mendous work of cataloguing the higher forms of plant life when the Great War broke out.
“I am sure that had not their work been interrupted,” he continued, “they would have completed a comprehensive survey of the major flora of the Territory and found the Agathis pine growing pro fusely in certain elevated districts on the mainland.
“When in Fiji several years ago, I saw magnificent Agathis Vitiensis trees growing to a height of over 150 ft. With the hotter New Guinea climate, the trees should grow even taller there.”
The Agathis trees in the Botanic Gar dens are well-developed trees of the Ovata and Moorei (New Caledonia), Viti ensis (Fiji), Robusta (Nth. Queensland), and Obtusa (New Hebrides) varieties.
The North Queensland variety, which it is thought is similar to the New Guinea species, is a large tall specimen of about 100 ft. in height. The girth of its mottled brown trunk measures six to eight feet at the base and tapers to about 18 ins. at the summit. Branching out on alter nate sides, the slim limbs bear a profuse growth of smooth, bright green leaves, about three inches long and one inch wide.
The valuable Dammar resin has many uses, the chief of which is its use in the making of colourless spirit varnishes. It is also utilized, with certain other pre parations, for varnishing fabrics, paper, cloth, etc., and for interior decorative
work. Dammar resin is an important constituent of duco for renovating auto mobile bodies, etc. In India the black resin has a wide variety of uses for medi cinal purposes. Its present worth in Sydney is about £50 per ton, though No. 1 Singapore grade is selling on the world market at about £78 per ton.
Apart from the resin, the Agathis tree itself, having a close grained, easily worked wood, is in considerable demand for housebuilding and for the manufac ture of furniture. This aspect has been commercialised in the Solomon Islands by the Vanikoro Kauri Timber Co., which exports (mostly to Melbourne) the huge logs cut from the forests in the southern Solomon Islands.
In Fiji the Agathis Vitiensis tree is known locally as the Dukua, and the resin is called “makadre.” The Fijian natives collect this gum from time to time and occasionally small parcels are shipped from the Colony, The general practice of extracting the gum is by incision, or by cutting down the tree, firing the roots, and gathering the gum as it oozes from the cut. In New Zealand, however, large deposits of fossilized Dammar resin are found at 5 to 6ft. below the earth’s surface, thus indicating the presence of huge forests of Kauri trees at some former period. The gathering of this “Kauri gum” has been
for many decades an important industry in northern New Zealand.
In 1924, the Government of Papua sent the Imperial Institute of London samples of Dammar resin dug from the ground on Sudest Island, 180 miles S.E. of Papua.
The resin, somewhat stalactic in form, was a light brown colour and mostly transparent. On analysing it, the Im perial Institute’s chemists found that it softened at 115 degrees Centigrade and turned into liquid at 170 degrees.
When mixed with two parts of turpen tine oil the resin formed a good colour less varnish. The main difficulty, how ever, was that this particular type of resin was almost insoluble in alcohol, and therefore useless in the preparation of com mercial spirit varnishes. It was stated at the time that to render the gum sale able it would have to be sold in England at £30 to £40 per ton. At that time, before the use of synthetic resins was widespread, first class Dammar resin was bringing £150 per ton.
As far as could be ascertained nothing further was done to develop the Sudest Island resin.