KAURI PINES AND GUM. 187 



and cone-bearing tree with long leaves somewhat 

 resembling those of the box-tree. 



It used to exist there in enormous forests, and has 

 sometimes been lauded as the best timber which grows 

 anywhere on the globe, and as much more durable than 

 any other. * Unfortunately it is not a hardy tree, f and 

 has not proved a success when tried out of its own 

 country ; it is also very slow growing, taking quite as 

 long as, or longer than, the oak to come to maturity, 

 and it is said to take 800 years to attain its full size, 

 probably because it grows on rocky and barren volcanic 

 soils. Its principal habitat is in the province of Auck- 

 land in the North Island, where it grows to 180 or 

 200 feet in height, with a diameter of 6 or 7 feet, and 

 clean stems of 80 feet or even 100 feet without a branch ; 

 trunks up to 15 feet in diameter are however said to 

 have been met with in the ancient forests, before the 

 lumberer had made havoc among these woods. But 

 these splendid trees are now a thing of the past, and 

 at the present rate of cutting, it is to be feared that 

 in 25 or 30 years the Kauri pine forests of New 

 Zealand will become absolutely extinct. 



One of the products of the Kauri pine was a species 

 of amber-like gum, known as "Kauri gum," which 

 used to be naturally distilled by the ancient trees in 

 large quantities; masses of it of considerable value 

 being still found in the ground, from which the forests 

 have disappeared, where it had collected in former 

 days, at the roots of old trees and it is stated that 

 in 1876, several thousand tons of this gum, valued 



* Timber and Timber Trees, by Thomas Laslett, Inspector to the 

 Admiralty, 1875, p. 297. 



y Gordon's Pinetum, 1880, p. IOQ. 



