i 
FIJI-NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITION 291 
the natural vegetation and the agricultural development as well. 
On this trip short visits were made at Ohakune and Palmerston. 
The two days at Ohakune gave a good opportunity to see the 
mixed taxid association as there were fine Podocarpus and Dacry- 
dium trees in this region. North Island, New Zealand, was or- 
iginally quite largely forested with what might be classified as a 
temperate rain forest. The settlement of the country and lumber- 
ing operations have, however, greatly reduced the undisturbed 
area of timber land. Like our country New Zealand has suffered 
from the exploitation of her timber with little concern over the 
conservation of forest resources. The generation that struggles 
with the problems relating to the clearing of land naturally thinks 
in terms of the present rather than the future. The large lumber- 
ing concerns have meanwhile used the opportunities to exploit the 
natural resources of the Dominion. The undisturbed forests of 
this region stand seventy-five to one hundred feet in height and 
there is a luxuriant growth of ferns and mosses on the forest 
floor. Tree ferns are common but of smaller size. 
The Ohakune district is one of the few points on the main line 
having at the present time considerable areas of native timber. 
At one side of the town there are excellent standing forests while 
on the other side of the railroad are vast stretches of stumpage 
with hundreds of standing and fallen trees decaying where they 
grew. The choicer logs lumbered out, the remainder with the 
detritus is burned, sheep are turned in, and in a short time the 
forest is a pasture. 
This trip afforded opportunity for noting the agriculture of 
North Island, which offers sharp contrast to that of parts of our 
country of corresponding latitude. The climatic factors discussed 
above were shown to favor foliage parts of plants. The evergreen 
habit is a resultant of such conditions and has dominated their 
agriculture. In the first place the principal plant product of New 
Zealand is leaves, though it is chiefly those on herbaceous plants, 
and takes the form called pasturage. In going from Auckland to 
Wellington, a distance of four hundred twenty-five miles, I 
traveled only by day-time trains in order that I might see the 
country better. I believe my notes give something between sta- 
tions all the way down to North Farmington and in reviewing 
these I find mention of one tiny area of corn, one setting of grain, 
a few fields of pumpkins and numerous fields of turnips. Other 
than these and excepting of course the limited forests that are 
