136 Miscellaneous Contributions and 



A few years ago an industrious man could dig out about 2 cwt. 

 per day; now he will hardly obtain one- third of that quantity in 

 the same time. The total annual yield is, however, not yet falling 

 oflF, owing to the additional number of diggers employed. This 

 quantity is very large for a substance of this kind, amounting to 

 fully 5000 tons, of which 3000 are sent to America, and 2000 to 

 England. The average value of the fossil resin is now about £60 

 per ton. There are several qualities of it, however, varying in 

 price from £45 to £170 according to its purity. The resin ob- 

 tained from growing trees — of which, as already remarked, very 

 little has yet been exported — is not worth more than £25 per ton. 



Although many specimens of Kauri resin are as beautiful as 

 amber, the Maories, notwithstanding that they have the artistic 

 faculty in a high degree, do not appear to have ever applied the 

 resin in any way as an ornament. i\s we see by objects handed 

 down to us, amber for this jiurpose must have been highly prized 

 by the ancient Greeks, the Ifomans, the Vikings or Norsemen, and 

 the early Celts. The only uses the Maories have made of Kauri 

 resin have been to kindle fires and as a masticatory. In recent 

 years lockets, brooches, and other small ornaments have been made 

 of it by settlers at Auckland and other places in the North Island. 

 They have the serious drawback of being not nearly so hard as 

 amber ornaments. 



Unfortunately, it is yearly becoming more difficult to keep up the 

 supply of this higldy useful vegetable product. It is estimated that 

 the fossil Kauri resin will be completely exhausted twenty years 

 hence. 



The recent gum is not so serviceable as the fossil kind, owing to 

 its softness, though it has a more pleasant odour when heated. But 

 neither can a long-continued supply of the new resin be hoped for. 

 I hear from persons acfpiainted witli the country, and I also see by 

 remaiks in papiji's jjuljlished in the Transactions of tlie New Zealand 

 Institute, that the existing forests of the Kauri ])ine itself will 

 more than likely be wholly cut down in another fil'ty years. 



Mr S. (irieve exhiliited specimens of Mosses collected l)y liim in 

 the Island of Hum. 



Three large and valuable cases of Cinchona specimens, which had 

 been presented to the Society by Mr J. Alexander of the Forest 

 iJepartnient, Ceylon, were exhibited, and the l)est thanks of the 

 Society were accorded to tliat genilciiiaii for his donation. 



Fehruarij 10. 



Mr. Taylor exhibited specimens of the Californian Redwood 

 {Seriuoia senqjervirens), and after sketching the history of the plant 



