REVIEWS 5G1 



Waipoua Kauri Forest: Its Demarcation and Management. D. E. 

 Hutchins, I. F. S., Department of Lands and Survey, New Zealand. 

 1918. 63 pp. 



This very readable bulletin by Mr. Hutchins, formerly of the Cape 

 Colony, and later of the British East African Forest Department, gives 

 a good picture of the best Kauri forest in New Zealand. It is written 

 with an appreciation of the scenic, as well as the commercial, value of 

 the forest. The author says : "The Waipoua forest has to be thought 

 of as a tourist resort. The old Kauri trees are one of the sights of New 

 Zealand. When the railway is completed into and through the Kauri 

 forest, that will be the place in the world to see Kauri trees. The 

 Waipoua forest should be the tourists' spot of northern New Zealand, 

 with a name in Australasia similar to the Black Forest in Europe. There 

 is forest scenery at Waipoua which can be seen nowhere else on this 

 globe." This is the largest and best of the Kauri forests left in the 

 Dominion having a demarcated area of approximately 30,000 acres. 

 Few American foresters realize the immense size attained by the Kauri. 

 There were two gigantic Kauri in the Tutamoe State Forest, each hav- 

 ing a diameter of 22 feet, and the best one having a clean bole of 100 

 feet. This was estimated to contain 295,788 board feet, which is twice 

 the size of the largest California big tree, one of the Calaveras grove 

 containing 141,000 board feet. Individual trees in Waipoua forest are 

 valued as high as £200 ($1,000) apiece. 



More abundant than the Kauri, but of comparatively insignificant size, 

 is the Taraire. This tree runs about 2 feet in diameter and 25 to 40 

 feet bole. In the best of the Kauri zone about one-third of the forest 

 is Taraire (New Zealand oak), a tree which promises in the future to 

 have a high value. This and the Purire are reputed to be the fastest 

 growing native trees in northern New Zealand. One specimen of the 

 Taraire is said to have attained a diameter of 13 inches in 18 years. The 

 timber has much the appearance of the English oak. 



x^bove the Kauri forest, at an elevation of 1,000 to 1,700 feet, is a 

 mixed forest type containing no Kauri, but with scattered specimens of 

 Rimu, white pine, Miro, and Totara. 



The average stand of millable timber per acre in the New Zealand for- 

 ests is 15,000 board feet. The estimated stand of the Waipoua forest 

 is 80, million board feet of Kauri and 200 million board feet of other 

 species. At present values this forest of 30.000 acres has an average 

 value of over $90 an acre. 



Mr. Hutchins recommends a working plan for this and the other for- 

 ests of New Zealand providing for: (i) working off the old stocks of 



