TROUNSON'S KAURI PARK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17459, 1 May 1920, Page 1 (Supplement)

TROUNSON'S KAURI PARK.

ITS VALUE TO THE STATE. BT 81* DAVID ITUTCIIINS. Mr. Trounson's patriotic offer regarding Kauri Park is an urgent matter. It pan hardly be allowed to wait until the next meeting of Parliament. The urgency is in two directions: (1). The value of tho kauri stum page is estimated at being in the neighbourhood of £50,000. After Mr. Trounson's princely gift left year, is it to bo expected that he can long keep this £50,000 fed up in a stocking (2). 1 have twice visited Trounson's Kauri Park and each time been struck by the danger from fire. It is urgent that the forest should be put under technical supervision and fireprotected without loss of time, and it will take between now and next summer to instal tho tire-paths, watcher's hut and telephone. Trie desire to make Trounson's Kauri Park a scenic reserve is laudable, but hardly practicable. When you ask a Minister to spend £50,000 on a scenic reserve as understood in New Zealand, he naturally coughs. It is too much like asking him to spond £50,000 on an untenanted house liable to breed rats and vermin, and to end by getting itself burnt down! The alternative was thought to be to let the miller into it to work it and destroy it as he has been used to. There is, however, another solution, and that is nothing 'more than the ordinary treatment that this forest would receive if it were in central Europe. The Government could then afford 0 pay £50,000 for it, with the certainty of getting a good return on the expenditure and the scenic features could be respected as they arc in the suburban forests of Brussels and Paris. It would take up too much space here to describe these forests more than to say that before the war they gave the owner (Government) a net return of about £1 per acre per year (which would be about £2 or £3 at" present timber prices) and that they are the pleasure grounds and the never-ending delight of the Parisiens and Bruxellois.

Rate of Growth of Kauri. It will be said if the Government give £50,000 for the Trounson's Kauri Park forest, what guarantee is there that the forest, technically treated by foresters, will yield the interest on £50,000? Here I may refer the inquirer to my recently issued" report "New Zealand Forestry,' page 11. On my way back from doing the demarcation of the Waipoa forest, our road took us past Trounson's Park. I improvised a sandwich, swung off our cart, and spent the best part of a day counting growth-rings on a quantity of timber sections which had been left handy for the purpose outside the boundary of Trounson's Park forest. At page 12 is given the result of the examination of 17 different trees taken at random. The mean figures work out to 7.88 years per inch of average radius. Here there will be noted it remarkably close correspondence With the figures published by Mr. T. F. Oheeseman as the result of a detailed investigation made by him some years previously on kauri trees in various part* of the Auckland district. My report then, goes on to show that tins rate of growth of kauri in New Zealand forest it nearly twice the diameter growth of the more Important timber* in European forests. , ~ .. . So much for growth. If growth be above the European figures, price* are mow so, taking pre-war data on which the revenue of these European forest* ha* been earned. If European suburban forests give good return*, Trounson s Kauri Park forest is able to give bettor, pro. vlded of course it is managed in a similar Timber Trees and Show Trees.

According to the figures quoted in the newspapers at Sir Francis Bells recent visit, the ripe, or what the French call the explo'tabU timber by itself is worth about £60,000. A* at Bru*»ol* and Paris, the forester's working-plan would allow for certain portion* of the forest and certain trees to be left for scenic effect. In view of the importance of encouraging tourist traffic and the fact that giant kauri trees w'll in the future be one of the unique sights of New' Zealand, it is unlikely that there will be any appree'able difference between the forester marking the exploitable timber for a commercial return and the wishes of the local residents to preserve the forest a* a show wea of kauri forest. It must be remembered too, that the agreement or compromise would be rendered easier by the fact that the largest •x'stina kauri trees are not in Trounson s Park but in the Waipoa forest, where the working-plan sketched in my report m the demarcation of the Waipoa forest 'provides for the reservation of the monumental trees. And further when the Waiooa forest is developed with the roads contemplated, it will become nearly as accessible as the Trounson Kauri Park forest Thus, if with technical working asd improvement the show kauri trees in Trounson's Park be somewhat lessened there will be a show of even larger trees in the Waipoa forest, only a few miles I 'proposal to pay £50.000 for the Trounson's Park forest and then hand it ever to foresters to be treated like any of the cultivated forests in mid-Europe will no'., appeal at onco to people in New Zealand because forestry as understood "• central Zealand as i. flying! If a forester m the famil : ar green and grey uniform were to appear to-day in the streets of Auckland, he wouH be as strange an object, «« a red Indian in paint and feathers! And ,ct it is at the organised forest the fores •station and the forester in charge that practical forestry in the field really b-g.ns.

Estimate of Revenue. There can he no reasonable doubt that, with the larger part of this forest put into order by foresters, the timber growth w. represent a good return on £50,000. If we suppose that, three-fourths of the forest be put into order as improved forest (viz. more heavily stocked with kauri) and one-fourth left in a state of nature for scenic purposes and taking the data given in my report New /-ea land Forestry" issued last month, we have :— Total art* as quoted in the newspaper reports of the Ministerial Picnic 5*3 acres, thus:- Arrcs Mr. Trounson's original cift to .. the Dominion J' His further gift last year '- Remaining lor*at ™[ Total «« J of 58.1 acre* ■ 4-17 acres Taking the normal yield of the fully stocked kauri forest at £10 per■.£, per year, wo arrive at 437 x £10 - £4370 vearly as definite net revenue. In other words, if the Government pays £50,000 now for Trounsnn's Kauri Park forest theY will recover the greater part ol the expenditure from the exploitableUmber and after an interval draw a net vearlv revenue of some £4370, which is 8} per cent, on the original out lav. 1 his is good enough, if the interval between now and the establishment of the normal fullv-stocked forest be not too long: and happily Trounson's Kauri Park forest is so 1 constituted (with reserves of young timber) that the interval would not be 'The fourth of the forest left unstocked and in the wild state would earn nothing It is a forestal axiom that, in «urh forests there is practically no timber increment per acre : growth balances decay. But as above the remaining three-fourths worked technically, would be strong enough financially to carry the remaining fourth on its back. . , It mav be noted here that according o a calculation given at the last yearly meeting of the Forest League, the loss involved in postponing the working ot the Waipoa kauri forfst amounts to £85 500 vearlv. Thus each yearns delay in postponing the working and rejuvenation of the Waipoa forest involves a loss, certainly a good deal more than the sum now required to purchase the Trounson's Park forest.