Kopi, giant kauri, falls

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33413, 20 December 1973, Page 2

Kopi, giant kauri, falls

(N.Z. Press Association)

KAIKOHE, Dec. 19. Kopi, the towering 1000-year-old kauri in Omahuta Forest, Northland, has fallen. An attraction for many tourists over the years, Kopi is believed to have toppled in the last few cays. The tree, which in its heyday contained more than 90,000 super feet of timber, began developing big cracks in October and its trunk started to split. A warning was given that it could fall at any time and safety barricades were put up around it. Kopi’s demise has confirmed the existence in the trunk of one of the world’s most unusual bats. Mr R. C. Lloyd, of Kaikohe, the kauri management officer for the Auckland conservancy, spotted some of the mammals yesterday in the tree’s hollow trunk. The bats, short-tailed, longeared Mystacina tuberculata, are a rare kind of the 600 species of bat in the world. Few colonies are thought to exist outside New Zealand.

State aid.-—ln a Press Association message from Wellington yesterday on increases in State aid to private schools, it was reported that three weeks ago a 30 per cent increase in teaching salaries was granted to these schools for the 1973 year. In fact it was an increase to 30 per cent. —(P.A.)