GIANT KAURI LOGS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19730, 27 December 1926, Page 12

GIANT KAURI LOGS

ENOUGH TIMBER FOR A HOUSE KINGLY TREE FROM KAUAERANGA. AS OLD AS ENGLAND. A monster kauri log, put through' the break-down by the Kauri Timber Company at Auckland this week, says .the “Star,” worked out at 10,475 superficial feet of timber, and the whole tree from which it came contained 66,564\ft. of millable timber—enough to build a row of houses. “It is the biggest in New Zealand to-day,” said Mr J. Butler, managing director of the company, as a party stood inspecting thv? huge mass that just fitted the ponder'ous breaking-down frame. Somewhere* about the time that the Romans left'. Britain and the Saxons came, a kauri seed germinated in a congenial spot on the lofty ridge of the' Coroinandal Peninsula. After growing for fifteen hundred years or so, this monarch of the forest reached giant proportions, and to-day the butt-log, the one nearest the ground, was put through the saw, turning out as fine a lot of timber as the company has ever handled. One frequently hears that there is no kauri nowadays equal to the splendid stuff they used to get in the ‘ ‘ early days.” Experts say that is all bunkum; we certainly use much that would not have beecn looked at forty years back, but just as good kauri is felled in 1926 as was ever felled in the eighties. The monster log handled proves this contention. As a rule, these giant trees are never as sound as the less ambitious trees —in fact, they are often rotten, but this monster was as sound as a bell, with not a sign of rot, and only a suspicion of what is technically called “heart shake."

As a matter of fact, the tree was too 'big for the saw, and about 6ft had to be cut off the sides and tops in order to let it pass through the break-down frame—which works the big up-and-down saw with the immense teeth that so quickly eat their way through these immense logs. Even in its cut-down shape the log measures about Bft. Gin. square. When felled, the tree was 48ft long by 43ft. in girth, containing about 66,564 ft. of millable timber, which, -a*t the present price of kauri, works out at about £2OOO for the value of the one tree. It is difficult to convey an idea of size by mere figures, but it will give some idea of the way this big log Stands out if we say that the average kauri tree in such a bush would contain about 2000 superficial feet of timber.

This magnificent tree of exceptional proportions was cut into four logs, of which two have already been sawn up, the third is now in the tide at the company’s booms in Freeman’s Bay, and the fourth ig the one that was put through the saw. Measuring 13 feet, in length by some Bft. 6in. square, this monster log contains 10,475 feet of timber, that is superficial feet, or “broad feet,” as they say in America. This means that in the log there are over ten thousand feet of board, a superficial foot being twelve inches wide by twelve inches long and one inch thick. The one log contains enough timber to build a cottage, and the whole tree would build a row of six modern bungalows. This glorious tree grew in the Kauaoranga bush, Thames, now the principal scene of the company’s operations. About fifteen miles from the Thames, on the ridge of the watershed, the big fellow was growing until last winter, when he was marked down, and it took something like three hours’ work with a twelve-foot cross-cut saw before he bowed his grand old head. Mr Faithful says there are even bigger trees still in the forest where this one came from. This will surprise many peoplee, who thought the day of the kauri giants was over.

What impresses the layman about these huge “sticks” is the facility with which they are handled, or that they arc.handled at all. This gigantic tree, for instance, had to be felled in rough, difficult country, -jacked to a suitable point where he would topple over into the.creek, in the bed of which he lay waiting for the “fresh” which would sweep him and his fallen brethren seaward. It seems impossible that a small bush creek should ever float such tremendous logs, but when the dam is “tripped,” it will sometimes run thirty feet high in gorgy parts, and even such gigantic logs at this 10,000-footer go tumbling over and over as they rush along on their brief but turbulent course to IXe sea.