MAORI NATURE NOTES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 305, 11 December 1929, Page 9

MAORI NATURE NOTES

FOR TRIBUNE READERS (Copyright—J.H.S.) Readers of the “Tribune” who are interested m the flora and bird life of New Zealand, bj cutting out these Maori Nature Notes each day as they appear and filing them in a suitable scrap book may compile a book of reference which will be to them a source of pleasure and instruction in the vears to come. '■ . KAHIKATEA, as its name indicates,. is a clear white pine. This stately giant grows a straight barrel from 50 to 80 feet without branches. The wood was never used by the Maori; but the Pakeha, having no knowledge of the little borer that destroyed tbe dry timber, selected it for its appearance, until the house were ruined by dry rot. It bears an abundance of small red and white berries, which were eagerly sought as food by pigeon and Maori. The tree forms groves in the swampy lands It is an ideal clean white timber from which our attractive butter boxes and cheese crates were made for tho European market. Now, its preservation will depend upon the extent of its being cultivated in our parks and gardens. The Forestry Department have a strange reluctance to plant any of our valuable indigenous trees. Before the white pine forests were decimated by export of butter, longing eyes were cast upon it as an ideal timber for making the finest quality of paper.