NOT ARMED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 165, 15 July 1939, Page 7

NOT ARMED.

BUT MIGHTY GIANTS. TREES OVER 300 FEET. FRIENDLY ARGUMENT. With so many countries boasting of the number of 'planes they have, how many miles of frontier are under fortification, how many armed men they can put in the field, it is a welcome relief to find a few countries pleasantly' squabbling over the right to claim the tallest tree in the world. America and Australia are the two chief contenders for the height record, but now that niillable timber contained in one trunk is creeping into the dispute,' New Zealand may be able to check tip with success some of the shorter but thicker kauris of the Waipoua forest. It has been settled beyond doubt that California (U.S.A.) has the tallest standing tree in the world. In Humboldt County is a redwood known as the "Founders' Tree," which reaches to 364 feet. Its girth at the ground is 47 feet. Australia disputed the claim for many years, and with success, for a Mountain Ash felled in 1880 measured 375 feet. Another felled near Colac in 1921 lay 347 feet along the ground. The recent gales in Victoria have threatened to re-open the friendly diepute, for a 331 foot hardwood was uprooted near Noojee—and this was broken off at a point near the top where the diameter was still three inches. Several new titles have crept into this perpetual bout, for a recent striking Australian poster advertises the "Tallest Treee in the British Empire." That, probably, is correct, for of standing trees no records are available to prove that there is any other tree in the Empire higher than the eucalypts near Marysville (Victoria), of which the talleet measures 301 feet six inches. Australia e fri«ly admit* that the Californian redwoods grow taller than the game, but point out that the redwood is a softwood—and therefore Australia claims to have the Mtfiest hardVHMXJI Mi tJM—WMMa '

Although no other State hae produced one tree with the niillable content of 100,000 cubic feet of the Victorian Mountain Ash felled in ISBO, some of the karri and jarrah trees of Western Australia have come within striking distance of it —and the tallest of these varieties have been 278 and 208 feet respectively.

It is interesting to note that both the redwoods of California and eucalypts of Victoria live under similar cool temperate climatic conditions with a rainfall of 20-60 inches, so that should not bar Xew Zealand from eom]K>ting.

In any case, is it not better to bicker about trees than bombs?

Mr. C. M. Tiirrell. of Wellington, has been appointed by the Wellington Harbour Board as a member of the board of trustees of the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum.