GIANT KAURI TREE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21112, 20 February 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

GIANT KAURI TREE.

THE WAIPOUA VETERAN.

BY W.B.M.

The excellent photograph of the veteran kauri of Waipoua which recently appeared in the Auckland Weekly Newsrevives interest in the dimensions that have in extreme cases been attained by this tho largest and most imposing of our forest trees. So little virgin forest has escaped tho combined onslaughts of tim-ber-man and settler that it is highly improbable that any kauri tree exceeding the dimensions of the Waipoua specimen still remains to bo discovered. The giant tree grows on the side of a steep mountain spur some nine hundred feet above the level of the sea, in the eastern basin of the Toronui stream, a torrent tributary to tho Waipoua River and draining the north-eastern slopes of the Forest Reserve. In this region the country is comparatively rough and broken and is covered with forest of exceptional luxuriance. Over considerable areas the undergrowth is of great density, tho predominant feature being a fairly uniform growth of tall kauri grass among the close-set tussocks of which the tangled and twisted stems of the trailing freysenetia run riot. Until recently the locality was comparatively inaccessible ancl the fact that a photograph of this the largest remaining kauri in New Zealand has but now been published bears eloquent testimony to the success with which steepsided gullies and enveloping bush have hidden the monarch from the curious view. Early in 1926 I had the pleasure of visiting and examining the tree in company with Sir. R. H. Murray, of the Forest Service, who has the honour of its discovery. So steep is the hillside on which the great tree grows and so dense is the surrounding bush that a clear view of the giant presented at first some little difficulty. First Impressions. Its mighty base was shrouded in the gloom that, fog-like, hugs the ground beneath the solid canopy of enveloping trees. Its massive column, indistinct at first, rose boldly, dwarfing its closepacked neighbours to puny saplings, and then, emerging midway from the green confusion of the clustering, tangled treetops, reached upward still in lordly grandeur. Higher still, and slightly swelling, it stretched up its great gnarled arni3 to heaven to gather in the gift of life from the vitalising sun that glinted on polished leaves, shining liko the gems of regal crown as they swayed gently in the scented breeze. One had seen noble kauris before, trees mighty of bole and stately of crown, but here was such a veritable epitome of graceful stateliness, of regal magnificence, of massiveness and enduring solidity; that all the others seemed dwarfed. A little judicious clearing which brought the mighty column into less impeded view served merely to accentuate tho dominating impression of sheer massiveness. This arises in tho main from the great thick- ! ness of the barrel in conjunction with its i comparative stumpiness, for the tree is by no means lofty as kauris go. At a point some sixteen feet above the ground there is a little platform where bark and humus have accumulated behind thick masses of astelia. Upon this platform the man is standing in the published photograph. Hie trunk proper may be considered to commence at this level. Details. At a point six feet above the platform tho tree is no less than fifty feet in circumference, while the distance from the platform to the first branch is thirty-eight feet. The trunk shows no taper, but its symmetry is somewhat broken by a series of rounded flanges that traverse its entiro length. At regular intervals of four or five feet tho bark bears regular rows of deep incisions, the remains of tho axescarfs of gum-bleeders, who, in former times, roamed the forest and exploited tlio trees for gum. Tho crown, which is lofty and of unusual spread and is supported on great gnarled branches which in themselves dwarf many a forest tree, somewhat offsets tho thickness of tho trunk and redeems the tree from extreme squatness. Below the level of tho platform where, at an unusual height above the ground, tho origins of the great, widespreading roots bulge the trunk, the girth of tho treo is very materially increased, but it was preferred to record as the true gfrth the distance round the clean and even bole that rises uniformly above. Giant trees of this kind invariably inspire speculation as to their probable age. Although it is safe to assume that tho present specimen has weathered the. storms of many a century, it is impossible to arrive accurately at the age of a kauri, even when the treo is felled and the number of tho so-called annual rings is counted. In the case of the kauri it is clear that moro than a single ring is added each season, though precisely how many more has not been determined with certainty. We do not know whether the kauri always grows uniformly throughout its life-history, or whether it enjoys now arid again a period of rest; nor do we know exactly when maturity and the limit of growth are reached. But from what we do know we can bo very certain that the age of the kauri has been very commonly exaggerated, and that the rate of growth is very much more rapid than has been consistently represented by those who have derided the possibility of the regeneration of the kauri on a commercial basis. Classical Records. It is interesting to compare this the largest remaining kauri tree with the classical giants of the species whose dimensions have hitherto been recorded. Cheeseman describes the average kauri as having a trunk eighty to one hundred feet in height, and varying from four to ten feet in thickness, but attaining in extreme cases a height of one hundred and fifty feet and a diameter ranging from fifteen to twenty-two feet. According to the records quoted by Mr. T. Kirk in the " Forest Flora of New Zealand," pride of placo must bo given to the huge tree at Mercury Bay which, with a clean barrel of eighty feet, attained a girth of no less than seventy-two feet. Scarcely inferior to this was the great tree in tho Tulamoe State Forest, known to the Maoris as " Kairaru," which was one hundred feet high to the first branch and sixty-six feet in circumference. Allot lior tree at Maunganui Bluff equalled this specimen in thickness, hut its height has not been recorded. At Tutamoe, also, grew the great " Nga-mahangahua," which was likewise sixty-two feet around, but which forked, twenty-two feet abovo tho ground, into two enormous limbs, one of which was twenty and the other twenty-two feet in circumference. A tree at Terakiakia, one hundred feet high and sixteen feet in diameter, was somewhat larger than tho well-known specimen that formerly grew on the Taravu creek near Thames. Tho noble example figured in tho frontispiece of tho late Sir David Hutehin's work, "Tho Waipoua Kauri Forest," is taken from a photograph in the Dominion Museum, the original of which is in the possession of Mr. F. A. Rogers, of Lower Hutt. This treo flourished near Tokatoka, in the Kaipara district, and with a height of sixty-five feet to the first limb attained a girth of forty-six' feet six inches. There are approximately sixty-two thousand superficial feet of timber in this mighty tree, and it is no doubt highly stimulating to calculate how many modern bungalows could be built from its ruins; but it is vastly more fitting that those who shall gaze upon its great grey sides in the years to come should ponder the fundamental truth that " Irecs are the arms of Mother Earth lifted up in worship of her Maker!"