MAORILAND'S PREMIER TREE.

Otago Witness, Volume 01, Issue 2123, 1 November 1894, Page 46

MAORILAND 'S PREMIER TREE.

For the past 15 years the naval dockyards have been partly supplied with a timber brought from the antipode3. Thus under beneficent free trade the Britain of the South sends its substitute for oak to the Britain of the North, 16,000 miles away. It is largely used for spars and yards ; and as mists for the largest war ships has been found superior to all other* The trae yielding a wood so favourably known to trade and naval experts ia the kauri (Daammara Aartralis). "Confined to a very restricted area, It flourishes only in the northern part of New Zaaland— chiefly in that narrow penisnla tapering off to a bold head'and— and it the undisputed sovereign of the Anstralasian fore»t. No other tree cm approach it in grandeur of proportion or in impreaflivaneus, when, as one of a clasp, it holdn it* own over stretches of country hundreds of miles In extent. Unlike the pines of the Old World, it has no needles, but masses of small pinnate leaves of an olive-green colour, and in the early spring tiny white blossoms. Ia the autumn the branches are loaded with appleebaped cones. When towering singly or in a group above the mixed bush it repel* the undergrowth and wanton parasites on every side, tbe limits of Us sway beicg marksd by a bare, rou&d pa'ch of brown earth. A« a rule, however, it grows in forests sacrsd to its own epecieF. In Auckland province there is, or was, a wood extending over bill and dale, rootmtain and gully, for fullj? 500 miles, and further south there are others of hardly less area. The trees stand close together, not branching out until near the top. The diameter at base measures from 30ft to 60ft, attaining a height of from 100 ft to 130 ft before it shows a single bough. The boles of quite young trees are often 20ft in girth and 100 ft in height, whilst some patriarchs soar up straight as a larch to close on 200£t. Above this magnificent pedestal spread tb.B leafy crowns, interlacing with one another until daylight can only enter in a dim, subdued fashion, as if afraid of intruding. When compared with the titanic dimensions of tbe stick, however, the boughs appear small and insignificant, and never display the graceful curves and noble dome of an English oak or elm.

A kauri geove once seen can never be forgotten. To walk between its mighty pillars,, smooth and dark as ebony, uniform in age and he'ght, and buried ia a perennial twilight and a silence that the wildest storms only disturb by the merest ripple of sound, awakens a feeling of awe. Miie upon mile they stretch into distance in a majestic procesaion, which follows every irregul&rity in the land. The monotony and atiilness are absolute. Sounds of sninaal life are never heard. The contented droning of insects and glad singing of birds are as vigorously excluded as the sunshine. The kauri reigns supreme in its own domain. Nor ia tbe luxurious undergrowth of tbe bush toler&tad — no palms or tree ferns, no shrubs or orchids, none* of the beautifnl parasites which make tbe ruix?d woods bo enchanting,- nothing but a living carpet of delicate maiden hair. But to bring home to the mind tbe stupendous size of the kauri it mast be oompared with the largest trees in these islands. la England there are several elms 70ft high an i 30ft in gtrth ; oaks 80ft high and 40fr, in girth ; and in Scotland there is an ash 90ft high and 19ft in girth. Bat the«e are regarded as extraordinary, and grow in solitary grandeur. The average girth of a tree in Britain is not more than 12ft, or the average height above GOft. But in New Zealand there are miles of kauris whose average height is not tees than 100 ft and whose girth is not less than 30ft.

A tree somewhat similar to it in appearance, but not bo valuable in a commercial sense, is found in the Fiji Islands — a fast aacertalsed by Captain Oook in his several visits to the South Seas. He then pronounced the kauri pine tuperior to Norway pine, a judgment which has since been abundantly verifiad. Not only is it a source of wealth to the colony — the value of the export trad© averaging £176,732 a year — but ib is used within the country itself as oak was ones used in England. Except in the heart of the largo towns, where brick and mortar arc compulsory, the private houses and public buildings are bnllt of it exclusively, and s<r is ordinary furniture, such as tables, chairs, and tha like. This faith in tho durability of the wood is more than justified. So solid and iron is its heart that the weather boards torn from huts rudely put together by the pioneers of 50 years ago, and lately demolished to make room for the improvements of progress, have been found in a perfect state of preiervation, and are now exhibited as a curiosity. One of tho colonels of the 73rd Begiment, of Maori war fame, bought an" estate near the once-renowned Gate Fa, and discovered in it a mottled kauri, with the timber of which he was able to line the whole of his house, and to have made a dnchesse dressing table, coffee table, eight chairs, a withstand, a work table, and a bedstead. The profit on an ordinary kauri tree, whose height is 50ft, and whose girth at base is 20ft. averages [£100.— London Evening Standard.