TROUNSON PARK FIRE

Hawera Star, Volume L, 24 February 1931, Page 5

TROUNSON PARK FIRE

NOW WELL UNDER, CONTROL GENEROUS GIFT recalled

(Bj ..ciegrapti —Press Association.) DARGAVELLE, Feb. 23. The lire that broke out in fouridiii’erent places in Trounson Kauri Park on Sunday is no.w well under control. Scon after the Government made the small reserve, which, incidentally, contained a giant kauri, 78ft in circumference, since destroyed by fire, it was considered by several residents of the distriot that a larger area might be secured. The forest-olad hills and valleys of the Northern Wairoa were rapidly being denuded of then* great trees. In the meantime the forest land adjoining the Government reserve had been acquired by Mr Trounson for miilinn- purposes. He was fully in sympathy with the movement for preserving a large block of native kauri bush and transferred to the Government an adjoining area of 41 acres, receiving its equivalent in timber, which lie took from the Tangdh.ua Ranges. In 1919, Mr Trounson made a straight-out gift of a further 12 acres of the forest, containing many _ magnificent specimens of giant kauri. This brought the extent of what w as known as Kauri P!ark to 60 acres of fine forest land. , By this time the vast timber resources of the Northern AVairoa were almost exhausted, but adjoining Kauri Park was an area, of 900 acres of forest land, forming one of the last remnants of accesible kauri bush in the Dominion. Mr Trounson again came forward with a further generous offer to sell this area, to the Government for £40,000, which was half the assessed marketable value of the timber alone, and to make a, gift of the land. On the recommendation of Sir FranI ( >i,s Bell, then Commissioner of State I Forests, the Government decided to a,e----i cent MV Trounson’s offer and on Nov- ! ember 29, 1921, Dowl Jellicoe, who was I Governor-General at the time, visited 1 the forest and accepted from Mr TrounI son the title deeds, naming the whole i area the Trounson Kauri Park. Subsequently Mr Trounson made a further gift of 6J- acres of rich flat land. ! surrounded by a. fern-fringed creek anc | abutting on ‘the western boundary, od the park. This: was set aside as a childI ren’s sports-ground and named tin ■ “Eflmund Trounson Memorial Park,’ i * memory of the son of the donor who, during the influenza epidemic ©: If)l8, gave his life in assisting. tin sick and dying of the Kaihu district. A few years ago it was estimate! that the monetary value off Mr TVoun son’s gifts was approximately £60,000