CEDARS OF LEBANON.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 19 July 1920, Page 5

CEDARS OF LEBANON.

The cedars of Lebanon, famed in history, are reported to have been almost wiped out during the world war. First the Turks cut them down for fuel to be used on their locomotives, and then the conquerors of the Turks continued the destruction. Tso doubt military exigency demanded that these celebrated forests should be sacrificed1, and, since sentiment plays a' small part in warfare, the famous trees were regarded with no other eye than that which saw in them common material with which to produce motive power.

A writer in the San Francisco Argonaut deplores the fact that st«rn necessity led to the disappearance of these trees, some of which were sard to "be nearly 3000 years old. They were historic even in the time when the army of Sennacherib, 608 years before the Christian era, laid waste the country, as related in the Psalms of David. Pliny, the Roman historian said the durability of their wood was everlasting, and the Arabs regarded the trees as endowed witli the principle of perpetual existence. Timbers unearthed in the ruins of ancient Assyrian cities have been found practically unchanged after the vicissitudes of two thousand years and more. The giant growths thrived best in the mountains sotith of Beirut.

In ancient times the oil of the trees was believed to have curative properties and was applied to the bodies of sufferers from leprosy. The Romans used the oil to preserve their manuscripts. Individual trees often attained a girth of 42 feet, and height of 90 feet was common The spread of the branches, exceeding even the height, made a profound impression upon those who beheld them."