THE DOOMED KAURI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20088, 27 October 1928, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE DOOMED KAURI.

FATE OF A FOREST GIANT.

BY TE KARINI.

"As the British ox, with his short horns and cubo-like form, is tho result of generations of breeding with a single eye to meat, so that liugo candelabrum, tho kauri, might bo fancied to bo tho outcomo of thousands of years of experiment in producing tho perfection of a timber tree. It is all timber —good wood." So says Pember Reeves in " The Long White Cloud." It was Marion du Fresno, a French navigator, who first made the kauri known to tho outsido world. Ho arrived in tho Bay of Islands in May, 1772, with two ships, and at once established a shipyard and made preparations for an extensive trade in kauri spars, but unfortunately for him ho was apprehended for cooking his food with tapu-ed wood and violating other sacred laws, so that he and sixteen of his crew wero despatched and eaten. In an account of the voyage we read " tho highest and commonest tree in the country is the kauri."

By the year 1800 tho fame of the kauri had reached England, and a considerable trado was carried on in masts and spars. Tho Boyd was loading kauri spars for the Capo of Good Hopo when she and her crew came to grief in Whangaroa. It is difficult to believe to-day that in 1827 practically the whole country north of Kawhia, To Aroha, Thames and Coromandel was one vast forest, but the artist Earle, who* crossed tho island four times during his visit in that year, declares " Tho kauri trees aro so thick that in some places wo had some difficulty to squeeze ourselves through them. Not a gleam of sky was to bo seen. All was a mass of gigantic trees, straight and lofty, their wide-spreading branches mingling overhead and producing throughout the forest an endless darkness and unbroken gloom." The economic valuo and singular shape of tho kauri also attracted that keen observer of nature, Charles Darwin, who, after visiting the Bay of Islands in the Beagle in 1835, wrote: "Tho noble kauri trees are tho most notable production of tho island. The forest is almost wholly composed of kauri, and the largest trees from tho parallelism of their sides stood up like gigantic columns of wood" Scientific Testimony. Hochstettcr, Colenso, Percy Smith and others havo all testified to the .enormous extent of kauri forest, and later authorities havo estimated that there must havo been upward of three million acres growing kauri when British sovereignty was declared in 1840. Where is that forest now ? Burned, wasted and wantonly destroyed. Millions of pounds worth of ono of tho finest timbers in tho world literally went up in smoko. There aro good grounds in many instances for believing that much of the old forest was set on fire deliberately. At Puhipuhi 17,000 acres of ono of tho best of tho old kauri forests, growing giants up to 18 feet in diameter and remarkable for the number of its saplings, liko strings of hugo candles set side by side, was totally destroyed by fire in 1887. Expert foresters havo estimated tho cost of that blazo at £4,000,000, but at present day prices thoso figures may bo doubled and then fall short of the real loss. During the several weeks in which tho fire raged it is said that upward of 300,000,000 sup. feet of millablo timber wore demolished. At £3 per 100 ft. this represents a present day loss of £9,000,000. Lack of State Supervision.

Charles Lamb recounts a custom of llio ancient Chinese among whom an idea long prevailed that in order to cook a fiig it was necessary to burn down a louse. So with Puhipuhi. The forest was occupied by gum-diggers and the easiest way to get at the gum below the surfaco was to burn the trees. Under modern forestry conditions, Puhipuhi today would bnvo yielded up to £ls an aero a year and given employment to 240 men for all time. Such results are far in excess of anything to bo achieved by dairying oa that class of land. Puhipuhi is just one of many instances where carelessness and lack of State supervision havo deprived the Dominion of being classed with the foremost timber producing countries of the world.

I do not of course overlook the enormous trade that was done in kauri timber during the closing decades of last century; a trado that kept the wolf from Auckland's door at a time when other centres were feeling tho pinch of depression. But tho barbarous vandalism of bush contractors, gum-diggers and others in destroying tho young trees, and tho culpable neglect of scientific afforestation by governments, amount to a national calamity. Profligacy and neglect havo resulted in tlie practical demolition of one of tho world's best timbers—a god-given asset which, under 1 systematic control, might have been turned into an inexhaustible and lucrative stream of national revenue for ever. To-day our few remaining clumps of kauri are pointed out as mere show spots to interest curious globetrotters. Ono shudders to think of what posterity will say of us. The World's Largest Tree.

Investigation has proved that tho kauri is easily the biggest' timber-yielding tree on this planet, despite tho boast of America of her " big tree." Thero are several accounts of kauri trees measuring more than 20 feet in diameter. Percy Smith, late surveyor-general, mentions ono that grow at tho head of tho Tararu creek, near Thames, which was reported to have been 28 feet in diameter. A tree at Mercury Bay measuring 24 feet and another at Mangonui Bluff 22 feet across aro mentioned by Kirk in his " Forest Flora," but tho most authentic record of Now Zealand's, and incidentally the World's, biggest tree is that supplied by Percy Smith. This monster grew in tho Tutamoe forest, north of Dargaville, and was called by tho Maoris " Kairaru." " Kairaru" was discovered by Smith himself about 1872 in the course of a triangulation ho was then conducting. When ho first observed this monarch of tho forest, " out of tho corner of my eyo as it were," ho mistook it for a cliff. Advancing a fow paces, however, lie saw that ho could look round it, and then it dawned on him that it was a kauri of enormous sizo. Subsequent measurements disclosed that it was 66 feet in circumference, or 22 feet in diameter, with 100 feet of bolo to tho lowest branch. Sawn up without waste, " Kairaru" would havo yielded 295,788 sup. feet of timber, which if laid in 12 x 1 planks end on end would havo covered a distance of 56 miles, tho distanco botween Auckland and Itangiriri by rail. Allowing 25 per cent, for waste, it would havo supplied sufficient timber for 19 average houses. Compare these measurements with the big tree of California, known as " The Mother of tho Forest." Its gross measurement is only 140,619 sup. foot.. Its basal diameter is slightly more than "Ivairaru's," and although it is higher, its height does not compensate for its tapering or conical shapo; whereas it is tho cylindrical form of the kauri that gives it its great bulk of timber. Treated in tho samo way as " Kairaru" described above, " Tho Mothov of the Forest" would have strotcbcd only 26.6 miles and built but nine housos, so that Now Zealand's big treo contained more than doublo tho tirabor of that in tho American champion.