A GIANT KAURI

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2308, 28 November 1925, Page 13

A GIANT KAURI

UATIJNU DJttUBl UUDUMIBCS, In 1492 Columbus discovered America, and in that year, in that part of New Zealand which Is how known as the North of Auckland, a young kauri tree had just begun to flourish. New Zealand had no place on the map then, but from that time the kauri tree gradually increased to girth, and in the course of its life it saw generations of the brown men of Ao-te-aroa wax and wane. It saw bloodthirsty tribal wars and it saw the gruesome rites that followed the slaughter, and perhaps it sheltered among Its branches a lurking warrior scouting for information of the enemy’s whereabouts. It was young when the Spanish Armada was destroyed in 1888 and it was still In its youth in 1642, when Tasman saw New Zealand at a distance. Captain Cook’s landing in New Zealand in 1769 marked a further stage in its growth, and it was still flourishiftg in 1840 when the first organised settlement was established. By 1907, when this country was created a Dominion the tree was the king of the forest, until a few years later a woodman spied its mighty bulk through the branches of its insignificant brethren, and the monarch that had seen the rise and. fall of tribal dynasties foil with reverberating crash —a crash that was caught by' the cliffs and the hills and was echoed from peak to peak until, it died away in the distance. A kingj had fallen, and it was fitting that the air should shake to the shock. This great tree is represented in the Forestry Court, of the Dunedin Exhibition, by a cross section from, its trunk —a cross section of beautiful wood 6ft in diameter and 444, years old. All the foregoing historical incidents are marked on the rings that yearly add a thickness to the trunk, and in this way a thrilling story is told. It is with a certain amount of awe that the visitor inspects this colossal section and the allusions tell in a powerful way the romance of the tree that was.