Research and Evaluation on the Machining Properties of Toona sinensis

In this paper, the machining properties of Toona sinensis, compared with Castanopsis hystrix, were tested. Their properties were conducted according to the criteria ASTM D1666-87 and the test on crosscutting was referred to the method established by New Zealand Forest Research Institute. The results show that four kinds of machining properties(planning, sanding, shaping and crosscutting) of Toona sinensis show excellent, and the drilling and mortising properties a bit poor, show good; but, the machining properties of Castanopsis hystrix in the planning, sanding, drilling, shaping and crosscutting all show excellent, the mortising properties, a bit poor, show good; in the machining performance comprehensive evaluation system for full marks 50 points, their comprehensive marks are separately 43.9 points and 44.4 points, so that both of them have excellent machining property.

The Defective Premises Act 1972—Defective Law and Defective Law Reform

The Defective Premises Act 1972—which did not come into force until 1 January 1974—was intended to do three things: first, it was intended to create a new civil remedy against incompetent architects and jerry builders who design or build bad dwelling-houses; secondly, it was intended to abolish the anomalous immunity of vendors and lessors from negligence actions; and thirdly, it was intended to widen the liability of landlords for defects in the premises which they let. The Act is based on the draft Bill annexed to the Law Commission's fortieth report, “Civil Liability of Vendors and Lessors of Defective Premises”—although in the Act the Law Commission's proposals have been considerably watered down. During the passage of the Act through Parliament the Law Commission was congratulated on its “remarkable piece of work,” and comentators have since welcomed it, either without criticism or else with fulsome praise. So excited was everyone by the label “law reform” that no one seems to have pointed out a number of obvious defects in the Law Commission's original proposals, defects which were multiplied when those proposals were heavily watered down. The final measure is open to a number of criticisms. It is, with all due respect to the Law Commission and to the sponsors of the Bill, a measure which adopts excessively cumbrous means to achieve relatively modest ends; which is drafted in terms which are longwinded, ugly and obscure; and which ultimately changes little—a poor show in view of the complications it creates in the process.